It was party time in Fayetteville, Arkansas, this week, when Jimmy Buffett sang his hit "Cheeseburger in Paradise" at an open-air concert at the University of Arkansas stadium. Mr Buffett's audience on Thursday night was a little different from his ordinary crowd, comprising employees of Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, in town for the celebrations organised every year around the company's annual shareholders' meeting.

Wal-Mart may have over 1.5m employees, working in more than 5,000 stores in 10 countries, with sales that are expected to exceed $300bn this year. But under Lee Scott, its chief executive, the retailer still cultivates the "down-home" image established by the late Sam Walton, who died in 1992 aged 74.