Little Rock, It's not you . It's Us. Thanks North Little Rock
Walter Burgess
4th Generation Entrepreneur, Co-CEO/CTO. Passionate about Leadership, Lasers, Entrepreneurship, Startups, Photonics, Economic Development & Business Clusters. Bryant City Councilman & Former Candidate for AR House of Rep
North Little Rock has announced that Amazon is building a distribution center in their fine city. That is great news for Central Arkansas. It will bring more jobs and prosperity to Central Arkansas. Perhaps they should take out a full page add in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette to thank Little Rock. A few thoughts on the matter are below.
I submit that Little Rock's cleaver campaign (see below) surrounding Amazon's HQ2 selection process put central Arkansas square in the sights of someone in Amazons planning department. Of coarse, that is exactly what the campaign was designed to do.
In my mind the timeline works out also. Stone Ward and the City of Little Rock published their full page advertisement in October 2017. According to the Arkansas Business article, Amazon started talking to land owners in North Little Rock a short 9 months later. That seems like a bit more than coincidence.
After becoming aware of Central Arkansas, Amazon planners probably realized they didn't have any nearby distribution facilities. That doesn't align with their published distribution models. Tactically, Amazon couldn’t put their new distribution center in Little Rock. The optics of that would be too awkward. Headlines might read, City that rejects Amazon gets Amazon distribution facility.
Overall, Central Arkansas is grateful that Amazon chose to put a distribution center here. We welcome a new corporate partner and the jobs they will bring.
Marketing | Creative Direction | Brand Management | Graphic Design | fine art
6 年Amazon is gonna wish they had chosen Conway!
Regulatory Specialist at RCRI, Inc. (Regulatory and Clinical Research Institute, Inc.)
6 年Awesome! no matter what side of the river. Not like the days they let FedEx slip away!
Advertising and Branding Specialist: Helping Your Businesses Stand Out from the Competition
6 年Outstanding!
VP, Commercial Loan Officer at First Security Bank
6 年now that's funny.? Also what about the argument some had that Amazon wouldn't have a presence in AR if the state required them to collect taxes??