Walmart to close pickup location
Walmart Inc. is closing a pickup and delivery location in Bentonville, the company said Wednesday.
The facility at 3701 S.E. Dodson Road will close by Feb. 17, Walmart said in a news release.
Customers who've been served at this location can access the same services at nearby stores, Walmart said.
The 35 people employed there are eligible to transfer to another store if they wish, the company said.
The Bentonville-based retailer said the decision was reached after a review process, and that this particular facility had not performed as well as the company had hoped.
In an official statement from Walmart spokesman Brian Little, the company said, "We are grateful to the customers who have given us the privilege of serving them at our Dodson Road location. We look forward to serving them at our other stores in the surrounding communities and on walmart.com."
Walmart, which employs nearly 1.6 million workers in the U.S., has thousands of employees at its stores, clubs and distribution centers in Bentonville.
-- Serenah McKay
Assistance center to receive new name
Cooperative Extension Service's Arkansas Procurement Technical Assistance Center is changing its name to Arkansas APEX Accelerator.
Melanie Berman, extension program director of Arkansas APEX Accelerator, said in a news release that the change reflects the program's mission to help small businesses through government contracts.
"Apex ... means the highest point of something, and we hope to achieve that in the level of service our program provides to Arkansas businesses in the field of government contracting," Berman said.
The name change coincides with the program moving from the Defense Logistics Agency to the Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs under a memorandum of understanding, signed between the DOD and the Small Business Administration in December.
More than 95 centers around the country will change to the new name.
"The program "plays a critical role in the department's efforts to identify and engage with a wide range of businesses entering and participating in the defense supply chain," Berman said.
-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
State index closes out day at 865.04
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Wednesday at 865.04, down 9.36.
"Equities struggled to find footing [Wednesday] with stocks closing lower as traders continue to digest remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and other officials signaling potential interest rate increases,'" said Leon Lants, managing director at Stephens Inc.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.