Walmart Stores Inc. reaches around the world from its sprawling, nondescript brick building on Southwest Eighth Street in Bentonville. At home, the world's largest retailer is an essential part of the area's economic engine.
The global retail giant employs around 2.2 million people in 27 countries to service 11,000 stores. In its home state, Walmart employs about 49,000 people in 11 distribution centers and 107 stores, mostly Supercenters.
The retailer employs about 16,000 people in Northwest Arkansas in several capacities from the home office to distribution center to stores.
Unique to Arkansas -- Northwest Arkansas in particular -- are the number of product supplier jobs Walmart supports. Some 52,000 suppliers brokered deals for $11.5 billion worth of goods sold to Walmart, according to information by Dun & Bradstreet for Walmart's 2013 fiscal year, the most recent data available to the firm at the time of the report.
Cameron Smith, president and founder of executive recruitment firm Cameron Smith & Associates in Rogers, said 1,384 suppliers have offices with more than 6,000 employees in Northwest Arkansas.
The company has a new leader this year, Doug McMillon, who at 47 is the youngest Walmart president and CEO. The Jonesboro native worked his way up the ranks. He was president and CEO of Walmart's Sam's Club and international divisions before the board of directors pegged him to lead the multinational company.
In his first few weeks at the helm, the company announced plans to quickly grow its fleet of smaller-format stores, specifically the 40,000-square-foot Neighborhood Markets and even-smaller Express stores. With upward of 300 of these stores opening this year, Walmart hopes to strengthen its grasp on customers' midweek "fill-in" trips, as opposed to the weekend "stock-up" trip they do at Supercenters.
The in-between grocery trip, according to Bill Simon, president and chief executive officer of Walmart U.S., is a $415 billion market with competition from pharmacy, dollar and convenience stores. Some 16,000 stores in this category have opened their doors since 2005. He calls Walmart's smaller-format stores "mini-Supercenters."
"No need to build the drug store; we have these," Simon said. "No need to build the dollar store; we have these. No need to build the grocery store; we have these."
The retailer is testing another small-format store in Bentonville. It opened a 5,200-square-foot convenience store March 19 at the northwest corner of South Walton Boulevard and Southwest 14th Street. The store has eight fuel pumps and carries snacks and beverages and staples such as milk, bread and eggs.
"We know this type of convenience store is popular with costumers," Deisha Barnett, Walmart spokeswoman, wrote in an email earlier this month. "We're excited about the opportunity to test a new store and learn." She said there are no plans to build more convenience stores.
This isn't the first time Walmart has tested a concept locally and rolled it out nationally.
The retailer opened its first Walmart on Campus in January 2011 on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville. Walmart officials said at the time that the store was the only one planned, but the company has since opened the small-format stores on the Georgia Tech and Arizona State University campuses. Stores are around 3,500 square feet.
The first Walmart Express stores, with about 15,000 square feet, opened on June 8, 2011 in Gentry and Prairie Grove.
"We like to try things close to home so we can see it and play with it and tweak it a little bit," Simon said during a 2011 investors conference.
Sales at about 350 Neighborhood Markets open at least a year grew 40 percent in Walmart's fiscal 2014. The company plans to have 500 to 525 of those stores open by the end of fiscal 2015 and grow its revenue by 35 percent to $8 billion. All new stores will have fresh food, fuel and pharmacies.
Walmart is opening three Neighborhood Market's this fall in Northwest Arkansas: Centerton, Farmington and Siloam Springs. The company is also opening a second Supercenter in Springdale this fall.
Walmart is also helping spur growth in the local manufacturing community.
Simon announced in January the creation of a $10 million fund to spur innovation for manufacturers who wish to add or bring operations stateside from overseas. The retail behemoth is targeting manufacturers who work with its suppliers.
He promised the previous January that the company would buy an additional $50 billion in American-made products in the next decade. Already, two-thirds of products bought by Walmart U.S. are made, sourced or grown domestically, according to data provided to the company by its suppliers.
Supplier manufacturers have committed to creating 1,600 jobs and investing more than $100 million in the country. The companies make everything from socks and shoes to curtains, light bulbs, hardware, candles and baking dishes.
Redman & Associates, a manufacturer of battery-powered ride-on toys sold at Walmart, is moving production of 6-volt toys from China to Rogers. The company also moved its Bentonville headquarters to its 275,00o-square-foot factory at 1300 N. Dixieland Road in Rogers.
Mel Redman, Redman & Associates president and chief executive officer, has said the company will invest $6.5 million and bring in 74 jobs in the move.
Walmart also recently began sending letters to hundreds of its consumer-product suppliers detailing new requirements for phasing out harmful chemicals from their ingredients.
The mandate applies to products sold in U.S. Walmart stores and Sam's Clubs in categories including health and beauty aids, cosmetics and skin care, baby-care products, pet supplies and household laundry and cleaning products.
The initiative is by far the largest and most ambitious of its kind, said Michelle Mauthe Harvey, who established the Bentonville office of the Environmental Defense Fund to work specifically with the world's largest retailer in 2007.
"It reflects a growing trend in which consumer and wholesale purchasing power are combining to change the chemical makeup of the products we see on store shelves and bring into our homes," Harvey said. The Environmental Defense Fund is a U.S.-based nonprofit environmental advocacy group.
NW News on 03/23/2014