World War II had come to an end, and the economy was booming in parts of America. Young men returned home from the war, and many of them became the first in their family to attend college thanks to the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, popularly known as the G.I. Bill. They married, purchased automobiles and bought homes. The steel industry, the automobile industry and other sectors of the American economy were thriving.
In Arkansas, something else was happening. The state was bleeding population. Blame it on the mechanization of agriculture. The research and development that had been part of the war effort led to better implements such as mechanical cotton pickers along with improved seed varieties, herbicides and insecticides. If you were a landowner, this was a good thing. A cotton plantation that before the war might have taken 200 sharecroppers to raise a crop now only needed a couple of dozen laborers. The vast majority of residents of this rural, poor state weren't landowners. They were sharecroppers and other low-wage workers. And there were jobs available in places like Detroit and Chicago. Thousands of Arkansans headed north.
In an attempt to stem the population loss--Arkansas lost the highest percentage of population of any state from 1940-60--the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission was created in 1955. Gov. Orval Faubus, who had taken office that January, asked New York transplant Winthrop Rockefeller to serve as the first AIDC chairman. Through the 1960s, Arkansas did what many other Southern states were doing at the time: Industrial recruiters headed to the upper Midwest and New England to deliver this message to factory owners: "We have decent people who work hard, but we don't have unions. That means your cost of doing business will be less if you come here."
Arkansas had some success landing manufacturing facilities. A number of them were cut-and-sew operations and shoe factories. Those jobs later left Arkansas for Mexico, Central America and Southeast Asia. Aging, empty buildings that once held these factories can be seen across the state. The old White River town of Des Arc was among those that attracted such a plant. It manufactured shirts for Van Heusen. Outside a building that was empty for years, hundreds of people will line up this morning for the 9 a.m. start of the Guess & Co. Christmas sale. Area restaurants will be full, and the streets will be crowded. Paul Guess' story should be a lesson for other towns across Arkansas.
Guess grew up at Des Arc, the son of Ann and Donald Guess, who owned a dairy bar and other small businesses. Paul Guess graduated from Des Arc High School in 1989 and from the University of Arkansas in 1993. He began a career in pharmaceutical sales, spending 14 of those years with Eli Lilly & Co. He lived in cities such as Chicago, Indianapolis, Baltimore and Memphis. In 2011, Guess graduated from the executive general management program at Harvard Business School.
Guess wanted to do something for his hometown. In 2013, he bought a candle company in Texas known as Lux and moved production into an abandoned grocery store at Des Arc. He expanded the company into Lux Fragrances, which produces gifts for high-end retailers such as Neiman Marcus. Lux products can even be found in the gift shop at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. The Des Arc facility has the capacity to produce 5,000 candles a day.
The success of Lux Fragrances led to Deck the Halls, Y'all, a company that imports Christmas items manufactured in China, the Philippines and other countries and then ships them from Des Arc to U.S. retailers.
"You can stand on the sidelines and watch, or you can participate," Guess told an interviewer several years ago. "I've chosen to participate. The community needs a vision and people who will act on it. The labor market is good. We have great leaders, but we need a vision--a global mindset."
Guess appears to have that vision for Des Arc. As he watches people load boxes for shipment across the country (he employs almost 75 people in the busy months leading up to Christmas), Guess tells me: "It has definitely been a learning curve for someone who was in the drug business."
When Guess decided to have a tent sale last year to market Christmas decor items directly to consumers, almost 1,300 people showed up the first day. A large part of the former shirt factory--20,000 square feet to be exact--will be utilized for the 2018 sale, which will be held on six weekends beginning today and ending Dec. 9. As word spread about the low prices at which quality goods could be obtained, people began driving to Des Arc from across the South. A few were pulling trailers. There will be 10 checkout lanes this year. Guess is even selling furniture.
Guess eventually wants to open the grounds to other vendors and food trucks, creating an Arkansas version of the famous First Monday Trade Days at Canton in east Texas.
"I don't think people here in Prairie County realize how many people come here for this sale," he says. "There are a lot of things we can do to make it even bigger."
Back in his office at the former grocery store, Guess already is working on designs for Easter products and items for the 2019 Christmas season. He's always looking ahead.
"You have to do things differently in this economy," he says. "You're not going to get that traditional manufacturing plant. You must be creative."
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 11/03/2018