Following the retail supplier community
More than 20 years after the death of Sam Walton, nearly 1,300 suppliers have set up offices within a 27-mile radius of Wal-Mart’s home office in Bentonville.
The supplier community provides roughly 5,800 high-income jobs and brings further socio-economic development and cultural diversity to the region.
Having the supplier offices in Northwest Arkansas is one of the catalysts that buoys income levels and home prices higher than in surrounding counties. This sector also creates a critical mass of top talent from a vast array of industries related to products, services and supply-chain logistics. Not only does this sector support Wal-Mart, but many of the suppliers in Northwest Arkansas also do business with other large national and regional retail companies.
Talk Business & Politics, through the sponsorship of Propak, intends to enhance its coverage of this important economic sector. (Please submit your story tips, ideas and feedback here)
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Walmart continues to invest in technology that increases efficiency in the supply chain and lowers costs of the system with fewer employees as machines do more of the work. The…
by - October 30, 2018 6:04 pm
Retail returns remain a challenge for even the largest retailers like Walmart and Amazon. A recent report from Optoro, a Washington, D.C.-based provider of returns optimization software, found the impact…
by - October 29, 2018 3:19 pm
Three years after its inception, Fayetteville startup Good Eats Food Co., has a new owner. Lakeside Foods, headquartered in Manitowoc, Wis., acquired the vegetable company, founded by Trey Taylor and…
by - October 15, 2018 12:16 pm
It’s been almost a year since Bryce Paden and Trent Carrender quit their jobs and jumped head first into i2i Labs, a Rogers-based startup that acts as a matchmaker between…
by - October 12, 2018 4:40 pm
As Walmart continues to rapidly expand its online grocery pickup business, the retail giant says it’s important for suppliers to lean-in and try new strategies. “We are in this together…
by - October 11, 2018 6:28 pm
Walmart is in the midst of transitioning the protocol and oversight of third-party content providers who work on behalf of suppliers selling items on Walmart.com. The retail giant said it…
by - October 8, 2018 2:38 pm
As online retail continues to grow so does the need for better reverse logistics to handle customer returns. A recent report from Cerasis found the costs of reverse logistics exceed…
by - October 3, 2018 5:26 pm
Walmart continues to digitize processes aimed at improving customer shopping experiences and better equipping its workforce. Tom Ward, vice president of digital operations at Walmart U.S., said some of that…
by - September 23, 2018 5:15 pm
Chicago-based C.A. Fortune, a national consumer products sales and marketing agency, recently hung out a shingle in Bentonville in the company’s effort to establish a foothold in retail central serving…
by - September 17, 2018 4:17 pm
With the shift of many retail categories to online, suppliers who typically have served brick-and-mortar stores are facing somewhat uncharted territory, according to Chris Moore, vice president of sales and…
by - August 13, 2018 9:41 am
Fayetteville brothers Austin and Quinn Simkins believe a family recipe handed down for four generations is their key to a national business. At ages 8 and 4, their grandmother began…
by - August 9, 2018 5:37 pm
With more households using subscriptions for consumables, services and entertainment, there is less need to shop in stores. Retailers of all sizes have felt the squeeze from Amazon and its…
by - August 1, 2018 3:16 pm
Leon Nicholas, vice president of retail insights at WestRock, believes consumers bolstered by a strong economy are calling the shots in retail by demanding best prices and ultimate convenience options….
by - July 26, 2018 2:29 pm
The start of the new school year is still a few weeks away. But with half of summer break already gone, retailers from Apple to Walmart have been busy announcing…
by - July 19, 2018 1:57 pm
Growing sweet potatoes for Walmart is a full-time, year-round job for Terris and Kim Matthews of Wynne, a city tucked away in Cross County near the northeastern edge of Arkansas….
by - July 16, 2018 5:08 pm
Salsa never looked back after it was crowned king of the condiment category over ketchup more than 25 years ago. Increased consumer demand for Hispanic food sparked the growth, according…
by - July 9, 2018 5:06 pm
Amazon’s move into the over-the-counter (OTC) drug business began late last summer when it launched its private label Basic Care, which included about 60 items such as ibuprofen and allergy…
by - July 5, 2018 11:41 am
When Walmart launched its Made in the USA agenda five years ago to support manufacturing jobs by sourcing an additional $250 billion in U.S.-made products, there were plenty of naysayers…
by - July 2, 2018 2:34 pm
The digital currency system Bitcoin is just one application of blockchain technology. And while it garners much attention, future retail applications are almost certain, according to Marshall Cohen, chief retail…
by - June 21, 2018 1:41 pm
Wine consumption is on the rise, with U.S. sales topping $62.7 billion last year. Walmart wants a part of that market and has spent the past year working to curate…
