I was able to solve this but I dont understand how.

When I perform an append to an array, the last value appended becomes the value for all the records in the array.

var myBus=BusinessType.new()

func _on_load
   for i in businesses_json.get_data():
    
    myBus.name=i.name
    print ("showint previous array after name:")
    for j in Global.businesses:
        print (j.name)
    myBus.location=i.location
    print ("adding "+myBus.name)    
    Global.businesses.append(myBus)
    print ("now the global array is:")
    for j in Global.businesses:
        print (j.name)

and this provides the output below.

showint previous array after name:
adding first
now the global array is:
first
showint previous array after name:
second
adding second
now the global array is:
second
second
showint previous array after name:
third
third
adding third
now the global array is:
third
third
third
number business = 3

When I move the

var myBus=BusinessType.new()

to within the for i loop then I get the correct output

showint previous array after name:
adding first
now the global array is:
first
showint previous array after name:
first
adding second
now the global array is:
first
second
showint previous array after name:
first
second
adding third
now the global array is:
first
second
third
number business = 3

Can someone explain why re-defining the variable at each loop solved the problem ? is it acting as a pointer somehow ? Does this not consume more memory resources have to re-define at each iteration ?

Is there a better way ?