WAL MART HAS TRANSFORMED NORTHWEST ARKANSAS, 2003-07-02 (photo)

Store manager Gary Rains (R) leads the Wal-Mart cheer at the end of the morning staff meeting with his employees at store #100 in Bentonville, Arkansas in this photo taken July 2, 2003. Wal-Mart has literally transformed Northwest Arkansas from a rural backwater to a global economic engine. Helen Walton, widow of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, once described Bentonville as "just a sad-looking country town" when Sam Walton opened his first store there in 1950. Five decades later, Wal-Mart employees and families of Wal-Mart vendors and suppliers, such as P&G and Kraft Foods Inc., are driving the area's growth, including an unprecedented housing and commercial construction boom. REUTERS/Jeff Mitchell JM