Rogers is located near the headquarters of J. B. Hunt, and Johnelle Hunt, who with her late husband, Johnnie Bryant Hunt, founded the intermodal pioneer, has been a major supporter of the project, according to Matt Waller, dean of the university’s Walton College of Business.
Waller calls northwest Arkansas “the hub of supply chain innovation and research,”
Besides J. B. Hunt, the area also hosts the expansive truck fleets of Walmart and Tyson Foods along with the Springdale, Ark., headquarters of short line Arkansas & Missouri, connecting the Union Pacific and Kansas City Southern in Fort Smith, Ark., with BNSF Railway in Monett, Mo.
The university will host the center for its first five years and it will feature exhibit and meeting space on top of a building currently under construction and expected to be completed early in 2020.
Jim Norton: Please feel free to call me at the office to discuss this further. I’m not always at my desk, but please leave a message. (262) 796-8776 Please ask for me. Best, Steve S.
Not everyone is happy with the Walmart-ization of America. Sure, the effect has drawn millions of customers, but it has also led to declining wages and the gutting of small town economies who were dependent upon local customers. Now, those customers drive to Walmart to get their bargains. What have we gained?
Ditto to the others remarks of making this a vacation stop. This should be exciting!
Northwest Arkansas is a great area in many ways. If you like trains, industry and car filled spurs the Arkansas and Missouri Railroad shouldn’t be missed!
I’ll be sure to add this as a vacation destination.
Well, I’d like to go there. Those three companies, and those three people, did improve the lives of Americans, and others, by their innovations. They did revolutionize supply chains and transportation. And they all came from northwest Arkansas. Go figure.
Let’s start with John Tyson. He started with one truck in the 1930’s. He’d buy live chickens in Arkansas and drive them to Chicago, where he’d sell them. He started to raise his own birds to make sure he’d have something to haul. The rest is history. Today Tyson Foods is the largest supplier of protein in the US. They’ve branched out to include beef and pork.
Sam Walton started with one store in Arkansas and created Walmart. He set up supply chains that left Sears bankrupt. The supply chain system was the key. Walmart does logistics better than anyone in the world. I’m retired now but I formerly worked in market research. An amazing fact I heard: One half of the US population goes to a Walmart twice a month. Nobody forces them to do so. Walton provided an alternative and people freely chose it.
J.B. Hunt had a small money loosing truck line. He turned it around and made it a transportation leader and giant. He readily embraced intermodal.
These people are to be admired.
This will rank right up there with the Walton Museum in my tourism hit list (not).
I would rather drive over to Eureka Springs.
This is what people do when they have more money than humility. They create memorials to themselves.
The last time I was up in Chickendale the tracks were littered with Alcos.
And Kalmbach shouldn’t make a buck why? Perhaps you’ve noticed many paper based publications have disappeared because they couldn’t make enough bucks to employ a staff to create it.
Mr. Benswanger: Its all about making a buck with Kalmbach. Unlike years back, the enjoyment of the hobby is secondary.
SHUT DOWN YOUR DAMN MR AD – IT BLOCKS THE WHOLE SCREEN ON THE ENTIRE SITE!
I would too Michael. Ironically the closest Intermodal ramps are KC and Memphis. Not that this is a huge IM origin/destination market (at least unless and until cold chain poultry starts to go via rail). It just happens to be the HQ center of gravity (and talent pool) for supply chain logistics.