Precious Mementos

We’re celebrating lapel pins—our favorite expressions of Walmart culture!

Lapel pins may be small, but they hold big meaning! We use them to celebrate and commemorate. They show off our goals and our wins. They honor hometowns and heroes. Pins are our love language, our very own cultural currency. Walmart World recently asked a few associates to share stories about their favorite pins.

Walmart Museum is working on a permanent exhibit showcasing Walmart and Sam’s Club lapel pins—and they have a goal to collect 7,000 pins. Are you ready to become part of Walmart history? Head to our Pin Submission page to learn more!

In Memory

When Wessam Salib, a beloved front end team lead at Store 4191 in Richmond, Virginia, passed away in early 2022, his family naturally wanted to keep his Walmart vest and impressive collection of pins. So, the team at his store found their own way to honor him.

With a crafty combination of her own pins and duplicates that she dug up, Sherry Wolters, the people lead at Store 4191, replicated Wessam’s vest. The vest and pictures of Wessam are now displayed with his name badge in the store’s associate resource center as a tribute (pictured below).

Sherry has also created a pin (shown below)! When her store held a pin-design contest, entries were posted anonymously for associates to vote on. Sherry’s design—which shows the Richmond skyline against the letters “RVA”—was chosen. “Everybody said that's the one they wanted and that was the one I designed, so that means a lot,” she says.

Treasured Keepsakes

Shelly Howell, people lead at Store 807 in North Richland Hills, Texas, cherishes the pin she received when she was named associate of the month back in 2009. “That was the first big award I got with Walmart, so that was like a big deal to me!” She says that she keeps the pin in her jewelry box.

Shelly also treasures her years of service pins, her Squiggly pin (shown below) and the 50-year pin she got at the Shareholders Meeting in 2012. “It's always a reminder that I got picked to go to Shareholders.”

In the Family

Heidi Pickwall is an academy coach at Store 3624 in Monticello, Minnesota. Her favorite pin is one her daughter helped design. It shows a yellow duck floating on a river. The pin represents the town of Monticello, which celebrates River Fest every year, during which participants can buy rubber duckies to race down the Mississippi River. The pins are given to academy graduates when they pass their assessments.

Heidi also has pins from nearly every state—she’s just missing Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wyoming.

Catch up on all the news from Associates Week 2022.

What’s the story behind your favorite pin?