EVEN if you expect everything to be bigger in Texas, the north Texas branch of the Nebraska Furniture Mart, near Dallas, is a shock. The megastore, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is the size of ten American football fields and employs 2,300 staff. Around 70 delivery trucks arrive every day and 20,000 visitors descend each Saturday. Mr Buffett predicts that the store, which opened only in May, will have a turnover of $1 billion in its first year.
For those disinclined to spend time wandering among the La-Z-Boys and monster grills, there is plenty of other evidence of prosperity in the region, which is variously described as greater Dallas, Dallas-Fort Worth or north Texas, depending on local loyalties. Drive to nearby Plano, and you can watch bulldozers clearing a vast lot to house the new North American headquarters for Toyota, which is moving from southern California. Head farther north to Frisco and you are in America’s fourth-fastest-growing town. The mayor, Maher Maso, has five shovels piled in the corner of his office from recent ground-breakings.
It is conventional to divide the world into a slower-...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1HAw9RX
No comments:
Post a Comment