Where is your safe place? Do you have one? Should you have one?   These questions popped up as I read a story in The Commercial Dispatch. While the story was about universities providing emotionally safe places for students, it made me wonder about safe places for people of all ages in our communities.   Once upon a time in Mississippi, ...

By JACK WEATHERLY  Six Mississippi startup companies went to Bentonville, Ark., last week, and all came back as certified suppliers for the international retailing giant. “The potential for these Mississippi startups is incredible,” said Tony Jeff, president and chief executive of Innovate Mississippi. Billy’s Original Foods is indeed a startup. “We just opened our manufacturing facility about a month ago,” ...

By JACK WEATHERLY At Home will fill a major hole in the retail lineup along County Line Road left when Sam’s Club vacated its 128,000-square-foot quarters in August. Plano, Texas-base At Home wasted no time in grabbing the property, having its permits in hand by November, according to spokeswoman Stacey Sullivan. Its arrival will precede the arrival of a 50,000-square-foot Burlington ...

By JACK WEATHERLY Six  Wal-Mart Express stores in Mississippi are among 154 of various Wal-Mart models  in the United States that the retailer will soon close. All 102 Express stores, a pilot program launched in 2011, will close Jan. 28, Wal-Mart said in a release on Friday. The Express stores in Mississippi are located in Belmont, Mantachie, Sardis, Walnut, Derma and ...

Public relations and marketing agencies make it a priority to identify the nation’s regional brand tastes – why people choose Coca-Cola over Pepsi, or Ford over Chrysler – in one part of the country over another. While the volumes of marketing research can point to the brands that are held in high regard in a given state – and why ...

JACKSON — Workers at an automotive seat factory in Mississippi are protesting what they say are low wages and poor working conditions as they attempt to unionize in what could become a new front for the United Auto Workers in the state. A group of workers and supporters at the Faurecia (FOR’-see-uh) SA seating plant in Cleveland plans a Tuesday ...

Adam Armour / Itawamba County Times Walmart is rumored to be eying Mantachie to open one of its 300 or so pilot small-form Walmart Express stores. Although still unofficial, town officials say the town has been talking with engineers about constructing a convenience store on property located off Highway 371, across from Delmar’s. The landowner reportedly sold the land to ...

The controversial Citizens United decision ostensibly unleashed American corporations to spend more freely on political advocacy. But despite the green light, many of the most powerful consumer brands in America are under pressure to get out of politics. And due to the added scrutiny, some have heeded the call. In the 2010 decision in Citizens United vs. FEC,  the U.S. ...

New legislative leadership does not necessarily guarantee easy victory for an old fight over inventory taxes. That’s something on which parties from both sides of the issue agree. Mississippi is one of nine states that still impose an inventory tax on its businesses. Arkansas is the only bordering state to still impose it, and Georgia is the only other Southeastern ...