A high-tech Walmart store is headed to NWA.
Walmart Inc. Monday opens a high-tech and fulfillment center in Bentonville — the first of its kind in Arkansas and the second in the U.S.
The shopping fulfillment center was built at Store 100 at 406 S. Walton Blvd., the company said in a news release Friday. It uses Walmart’s proprietary Alphabet storage and retrieval system.
“Walmart’s strategic use of technology to transform its stores aims to improve the customer shopping experience and open up opportunities for associates,” the company said.
Walmart said it plans to open manual and technology-enabled fulfillment centers in the coming years.
The Bentonville-based retailer has used Alphabet carts since at least 2019 after they were put to work at a New Hampshire supercenter. The bots were developed by Alert Innovations, a robotics automation company.
Walmart agreed in October to acquire the company, which it has worked with since 2016.
— Serena McKay
Beef and Egg Month has been declared by state.
To highlight the economic contribution of the state’s beef and egg industries, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued two proclamations on Friday designating May as Arkansas Beef Month and Arkansas Egg Month.
“Agriculture is our number one industry, and we want to make sure it stays there,” Sanders said in a state Department of Agriculture news release Friday.
Arkansas is ranked in the top 15 nationally for beef production by the Arkansas Farm Bureau. According to the Poultry Federation’s 2022 facts and figures, the state ranks third in the nation in poultry production.
There were 1.63 million head of cattle in Arkansas, most of them cattle for livestock, and more than a billion chickens for poultry in Arkansas, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s State Agriculture Overview for Arkansas 2022. .
Representatives from the Arkansas beef industry, including Natural State Beef Co., Cal-Maine Foods, as well as agricultural advocacy organizations the Arkansas Cattlemen’s Association, the Arkansas Farm Bureau and the Poultry Federation, attended the announcement Friday.
“Beef and egg production in Arkansas are great examples of why agriculture is our state’s largest industry. Beef and egg production consistently rank among Arkansas’ top eight agricultural products,” Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward said in the release.
— Christina Larue
Arkansas index sees a loss of 14.07 points
The Arkansas index, which tracks the largest public companies based in the state, closed Friday at 746.73, down 14.07 points.
The index is compiled by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette as of December 30, 1997, based on the 100.