NW Ark Time: "Half the state's retail sales go to 6 counties"

[KJW]

This article has a lot of interesting information.

The top 6 counties are Pulaski (#1, surprise surprise), Benton, Washington, Craighead, Garland, Sebastian. (The last 5 in no order). Obviously this is before the big shopping developments in Benton open up.

It's also interesting that the person in the article is quoted that Harrison is becoming almost a suburb of Branson. (And indeed, the new Missouri road widening is all the way down to Ridgeway, MO on the Arkansas line above Omaha.)

Were it not for McCurtain County, OK (Broken Bow/Idabel) We'd be close to building a continuous MSA from SW Missouri all the way to NW Louisiana (Joplin/Springfield, Fayetteville/Bentonville, Fort Smith, Texarkana AR/TX, Shreveport...I know there's a lot of space in between, but that's what the county map would still show.)

[Mith242]

Interesting article but you did mix up two of the counties. Washington is second, for now at least. It also emphasized what most of us knew. Washington County is drawing people from Benton County. But that will change soon. It does seem Benton County will probably be drawing Washington County people in soon. It also mentioned that people from Monticello often go to Pine Bluff to shop but that is quickly changing. More and more people from Monticello are now going to Monroe Louisiana. As far as the metros go, there's some really dead space in between those metros. Especially in the Ouachitas.

[KJW]

Interesting article but you did mix up two of the counties. Washington is second, for now at least. It also emphasized what most of us knew. Washington County is drawing people from Benton County. But that will change soon. It does seem Benton County will probably be drawing Washington County people in soon. It also mentioned that people from Monticello often go to Pine Bluff to shop but that is quickly changing. More and more people from Monticello are now going to Monroe Louisiana. As far as the metros go, there's some really dead space in between those metros. Especially in the Ouachitas.

Mith,

That's why I referenced McCurtain County, OK. LeFlore County, OK (part of Fort Smith) has a chunk of the Ouachitas as well but there's a lot of Fort Smith commuters between Arkoma, OK (right next to FSM, might as well be part of it) all the way down to Heavener, OK in mid-county. I agree that it's unlikely that FSM and Texarkana will join together, but if you look on a map there's only one county (McCurtain) not in an adjoining metro area between Jasper County, MO and Caddo Parish, LA.

Thanks for the corex on Washington County...sorry for my error.

(EDIT: Funny thing...also an interesting excerpt you cited (which I didn't originally see) about folks in Monticello going to Monroe, LA. Mapquest.com says it's 123 miles from Monticello to Monroe...mapquest also says it's 144 miles from Heavener, OK to Texarkana, TX. Doubt TXK replaces FSM for Heavener due to proximity and the mountains.)