Used plastic pallets in Northwest Arkansas

Northwest Arkansas by county

Count the jobs the BLS can disclose in Northwest Arkansas and you reach 3,065 in warehousing and storage for 2025, 1.2% of the metro's private work. The area covers 3 counties: Benton, Madison, Washington.

Northwest Arkansas against Arkansas

The metro's disclosed-county total set beside the state's whole count, so the two can be read together.

ZIPs with the most warehouses

Census ZIP Code Business Patterns for 2023 list 5 ZIPs here with the most warehousing establishments, 31 between them. 72764 (Springdale) leads with 7, 23% of the listed total.

• 72764 Springdale: 7 warehousing establishments, 1.0 times 72756.
• 72756 Rogers: 7 warehousing establishments, 100% of the count in 72764.
• 72712 Bentonville: 7 warehousing establishments, 100% of the count in 72764.
• 72761 Siloam Springs: 5 warehousing establishments, 71% of the count in 72764.
• 72745 Lowell: 5 warehousing establishments, 71% of the count in 72764.

What the ratios say

The BLS leaves out counties where one employer would show through, so the 3,065 jobs counted for Northwest Arkansas may understate the metro.

• Northwest Arkansas ranks 51st of the 60 metros in the data by disclosed warehousing jobs, with 3,065 against a median of 13,652.
• Spread across 3 counties, that is 1,022 warehousing jobs per county on average.
• Benton County holds 87% of the metro's jobs and Washington County 13%; the gap between them is 2,275 jobs.
• 72764 has 7 warehousing establishments, 1.4 times as many as 72745 (5) at the other end of the list.
• Arkansas has 15,624 warehousing jobs in all, so the disclosed counties of Northwest Arkansas are 20% of the state.
• Warehousing is 1.2% of private jobs in these counties; where it is higher than average, pallets are a daily cost and sellers of surplus are common.
• The metros closest in size are Grand Rapids (3,125, 60 above) and Sioux Falls (2,930, 135 below).
• The top three ZIPs, 72764, 72756, 72712, hold 21 of the 31 establishments in the ZIP list, or 68%.
• The ZIP list spans 5 towns, led by Springdale (7) and Rogers (7).
• The ZIP list averages 6.2 warehousing establishments per ZIP across 5 ZIPs, and the quietest, 72745 Lowell, has 5.
• Of the 3 counties in the metro, the BLS discloses 2 for warehousing, which together account for 3,065 of the 3,065 jobs counted.
• Reaching the median metro would take 4.5 times the disclosed warehousing jobs Northwest Arkansas has now.
• For every warehousing job in these counties there are about 82 other private jobs, so pallet-using work is spread thinly across 3 counties.

Where Northwest Arkansas ranks

Northwest Arkansas is one of the 10 smallest of the 60 metros by disclosed warehousing jobs. The largest, Inland Empire, counts 118,368, which is 39 times as many.

Corridors through Northwest Arkansas

No Interstate corridor in our data lists Northwest Arkansas, so the county and ZIP figures carry this page.

The ladder around Northwest Arkansas

Metros ranked by disclosed warehousing jobs: Northwest Arkansas with the two above it and the two below.

Northwest Arkansas's pallet-using trades

Against the national share of employment, meat and poultry processing is the most concentrated pallet-using line in Northwest Arkansas, at 8.3x. Wash-down plants need clean, crack-free decks. Ask whether any pallet has been repaired, since a weld bead holds residue.

• Meat and poultry processing: 8,488 jobs in the disclosed counties, 1.5% of the 556,647 across the US, or 2.77 for every warehousing job here.
• Food manufacturing: 13,596 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.8% of the 1,775,008 across the US, or 4.44 for every warehousing job here.
• Grocery and related product wholesale: 2,273 jobs in the disclosed counties, 0.3% of the 829,364 across the US, or 0.74 for every warehousing job here.

Planning around the seasons

• Cold months bring brittle resin, so handle gently and avoid sharp drops.
• Warm months soften decks, so shorten stacks and keep loads in shade.
• Harvest, holiday and promotion peaks use pallets faster, so order earlier.
• Wet seasons add weight in the ribs, so allow a drying day before indoor use.
• Plan returns and exports for the weeks when dock space is free.

A kit for the walk-around

• A steel tape that reads both inches and millimetres.
• A torch for the underside, where hairline cracks hide in shadow.
• A straight edge about a metre long to test decks for bow and dishing.
• Gloves, because burrs and weld beads cut skin.
• A phone, a pen and a numbered sheet so every pallet checked gets a mark.

Requesting a lot for Northwest Arkansas

• Footprint: 48 x 40 in
• Grade: like new or used and clean
• Dock ZIP, for example 72764 or 72756
• Quantity band

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