Iola Walmart is celebrating its 25th anniversary today, an event that brought memories flooding back for some long-time employees. WALMART’S anniversary celebration started at 10 a.m. today and will continue into this evening with sales and prizes.
Fourteen have been with the Iola store since it opened in 1989, including Josie Shaughnessy, who confessed the quarter-century journey has been a pleasant one because “I’m a people person.” Betty Shaffer noted the store has a family atmosphere.
“We’ve had a lot of people come and go, and it’s always sad when they leave,” Shaffer said.
Both said they were in the habit of keeping in touch with former employees, as well as customers who, for one reason or another, don’t make it to the store as often.
“Sometimes a phone call is important,” Shaffer said. “No one wants to be forgotten.”
Shaughnessy was among the first hired when Walmart came this way.
“My first job was putting together lawnmowers,” she said.
Shaffer came along in November of the first year. “I remember my employee number. I was 102,” she said.
The original Walmart store was where Orscheln is today, smaller but with a feature that both women fondly remember.
“I worked at the snack bar for 17 years,” Shaughnessy said. “Those were the good old days with all the coffee drinkers coming in. I enjoyed all the men — and the women, too.”
They also remembered visits by Sam Walton, the international retail chain’s founder.
One was when Jana Jay, a fiddle player of note, came to the Iola store to put perform. Sitting squarely on a bale of hay — put out for seating — was Walton, a good friend of the entertainer.
“Sam was sitting on a bale right in front of me,” Shaffer said.
A time to celebrate Walmart, workers ring in 25 years
