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Google announced this week that its American operations center (in addition to India and Philippines), i.e. the call center where you call to get help for computer issues, will be located in DeSoto County, with 350 jobs. This location reportedly will be the one location in the U.S. for this service.
Last year Amazon announced 500 jobs in the area and then made a second announcement for another 350 jobs, for altogether 850 jobs in the DeSoto County area.
With 350 Google jobs and 850 Amazon jobs this year, is Northwest Mississippi emerging as a major growth center? DeSoto County seems to be emerging as Mississippi's answer to Northwest Arkansas and Alabama's Huntsville region.
It occurred to me that with the flag change and Google moving to Mississippi occurring in the same week, it seems that Mississippi may have crossed an invisible barrier, (effectively joining the modern world).
In history it may be that Mississippi's pre-history lasted until about 1970, after which a transition period occurred towards industrialization and integration with the rest of the U.S., which ended last week, as Mississippi jumped into the modern era as essentially a normal state.
It seems to me that if Nissan, Toyota, Amazon and Google see fit to locate in Mississippi, it must be the beginning of something new.
According to my calculations, Mississippi's overall median household income (about $43,000) will catch up to the current median incomes of DeSoto and Rankin Counties (about $65,000) in about 30 years. Lafayette County with Oxford's student population comes in at similar incomes or higher.
Since both DeSoto and Rankin Counties (and definitely Oxford) both seem remarkably prosperous with middle class households being the vast majority of the population, it feels like Mississippi an an overall state is maybe another 30 years from its next transition, say about 2050, which will be into overall affluence and prosperity.
DeSoto County is an extension of Memphis. You can see that DeSoto's cities (Southaven, Olive Branch, Hernando, Horn Lake) are all attached to the Memphis urban area:
This is completely different from Huntsville AL and Northwest AR which function as completely independent areas. DeSoto County's good fortunes are solely because of its proximity to Memphis, particularly to the Memphis airport and to downtown Memphis. DeSoto can thank the inept and corrupt Memphis/Shelby County leadership for bringing so much growth and prosperity to DeSoto County.
With 350 Google jobs and 850 Amazon jobs this year, is Northwest Mississippi emerging as a major growth center? DeSoto County seems to be emerging as Mississippi's answer to Northwest Arkansas and Alabama's Huntsville region.
It occurred to me that with the flag change and Google moving to Mississippi occurring in the same week, it seems that Mississippi may have crossed an invisible barrier, (effectively joining the modern world).
While the second part of what I quoted above is definitely true, I tend to agree with BuffaloHome about Desoto County. It's Memphis. It's a very good thing for Mississippi still, and over time, if this keeps up, perhaps the area can begin to develop its own economy. And it's not too far from Ole Miss, who has a big presence in the Memphis area.
To me, if there is going to be an area of the state that could be an independent growth area, it's either the Golden Triangle (Starkville/West Point/Columbus) or Hattiesburg/Laurel. Both of these areas are obviously anchored by a university, both have their own commercial service airport, both have military bases.
Meridian is also an independent area with a military base but only has a JUCO and a small campus of a bigger university, and really hasn't seen much growth lately. Tupelo is another, but it seems to just be kinda 'out there' right now.
This has always been Mississippi's problem in the modern area - so spread out, with resources spread thin. The flag is going to help, though. I suspect we will see an influx of businesses looking for a cheaper way of doing things. Put it this way - surrounding, competitor states did not want to see that flag change, because MS is now a much bigger competitor for big projects.
This was actually announced over 6 months ago, and probably been in planning for years. Not new news. Actually the number of jobs anticipated for NW MS has decreased. You guys are stretching to find a reason that has nothing to do with the opening.
I lived in Memphis 18 years after graduating university there. And we left a daughter, grandkids, nieces and nephews in the area. I was over there this weekend too.
I traveled all over North Mississippi in my early career, and I can honestly say that much of Desoto County (and N. Miss.) was very substandard as a place to live. But in recent years, they look like they've adopted Memphis' much higher building codes and the housing has really improved the communities. I'm actually proud of what they've done in North Mississippi (and less proud of the Memphis and Shelby County governments.)
When I think about the Toyota plant at Blue Springs (Tupelo), the Nissan truck factory at Canton and Amazon/Google in Desoto County, all I can think about is the State of Mississippi giving back freebies to these great, rich corporations in return to produce some jobs. With the gambling in Tunica and Biloxi going town the drain, how can this extremely poor state afford these corporate incentives?
The Nissan truck factory has been a terrible factory, with very poor quality and out of date products. Nissan long ago chose to invest their resources in cars and SUV's produced in Smyrna, TN by better quality employees--simply put.
Toyota put their factory in Blue Springs with the intent of getting the hard working ex-furniture workers in Tupelo and New Albany to assemble cars. I have not heard any product problems, but their employee turnover has been extremely high as they simply work their people too hard.
I assume that Google's call center in Southaven area will be staffed with people mostly living in Memphis. I question whether the average Memphis person will have the dialect and conversational skills to be very good on the telephone. We'll see.
At least Amazon has some experience with people in North Mississippi, and I assume many or even most live across the state line. If I was a CEO, I would have put warehouses in Nashville. But they already have a huge employee presence in Nashville and are putting another 4,000 Amazon middle managers (and higher) into a new city being built downtown in Nashville. It's sometimes best not to put all you eggs in one basket--or one city/region.
I just hope this all works out for Google and Amazon. The Mid South region is growing, and North Mississippi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast is about all the State of Mississippi has to brag about.
I lived in Memphis 18 years after graduating university there. And we left a daughter, grandkids, nieces and nephews in the area. I was over there this weekend too.
I traveled all over North Mississippi in my early career, and I can honestly say that much of Desoto County (and N. Miss.) was very substandard as a place to live. But in recent years, they look like they've adopted Memphis' much higher building codes and the housing has really improved the communities. I'm actually proud of what they've done in North Mississippi (and less proud of the Memphis and Shelby County governments.)
When I think about the Toyota plant at Blue Springs (Tupelo), the Nissan truck factory at Canton and Amazon/Google in Desoto County, all I can think about is the State of Mississippi giving back freebies to these great, rich corporations in return to produce some jobs. With the gambling in Tunica and Biloxi going town the drain, how can this extremely poor state afford these corporate incentives?
The Nissan truck factory has been a terrible factory, with very poor quality and out of date products. Nissan long ago chose to invest their resources in cars and SUV's produced in Smyrna, TN by better quality employees--simply put.
Toyota put their factory in Blue Springs with the intent of getting the hard working ex-furniture workers in Tupelo and New Albany to assemble cars. I have not heard any product problems, but their employee turnover has been extremely high as they simply work their people too hard.
I assume that Google's call center in Southaven area will be staffed with people mostly living in Memphis. I question whether the average Memphis person will have the dialect and conversational skills to be very good on the telephone. We'll see.
At least Amazon has some experience with people in North Mississippi, and I assume many or even most live across the state line. If I was a CEO, I would have put warehouses in Nashville. But they already have a huge employee presence in Nashville and are putting another 4,000 Amazon middle managers (and higher) into a new city being built downtown in Nashville. It's sometimes best not to put all you eggs in one basket--or one city/region.
I just hope this all works out for Google and Amazon. The Mid South region is growing, and North Mississippi and the Mississippi Gulf Coast is about all the State of Mississippi has to brag about.
Seriously? Desoto county has always been a bedroom community to Memphis. I don't know what was substandard about it, 18 years ago it was the escape from the former mayor of Memphis, King Willie's empire of corruption as he was trying to consolidate all of Shelby county to incorporate into the city limits so that those tax dollars can pay for his urban failures. Now that was a jungle - crime out of control, potholed streets falling apart, garbage uncollected, schools that produced students who could not read. Crime rates, schools, roads,just about everything was better on the MS side of the border. Memphis was falling apart, Olive Branch was the Oasis. It's still good, Memphis not so much, maybe Southaven is a bit to close to the state/Memphis lines, but Desoto county is fine and still has the bedroom community aspect combined with, farther south, pure southern rural appeal. 18 years - the population has probably at least doubled. Nothing was every substandard on this side of the border because you had the Memphis jobs. Salaries are low, but so is the cost of living. A person making a low salary can have a middle class lifestyle. A person with a high salary can live like a king! Things were always good here, relatively speaking. Tunica is another matter...the Delta - that is not Desoto county.
Why would Memphis people travel to a call center in Southhaven? They could, but if the bedroom communities have the option to stay in the bedroom, what exactly do you think the choice would be? Desoto county people would leave the jobs 20 miles away and work 5 miles away.
One reason I compared DeSoto to Huntsville and Northwest Arkansas is because DeSoto's median income is slightly higher than both Huntsville and NWA, with DeSoto growing slightly faster than Huntsville and slightly slower than NWA. Huntsville has about twice the population and NWA about three times the population.
DeSoto will pass 200,000 in population soon. Perhaps 300,000 is the number above which an area begins to feel large enough to feel like an independent region in its own right.
While DeSoto is definitely an extension of and now important part of the Memphis metro, it's worth noting that DeSoto's cities these days are clean, well managed and confident, and DeSoto has a remarkable amount of nice industries. It's by no means only residential subdivisions on the edge of Memphis but increasingly feels like its own place, decidedly safer and cleaner than its neighbor.
I'm beginning to sense that DeSoto is beginning to get a reputation as a place to move to in its own right, for both quality of life and job opportunities, the way the Huntsville and NWA areas have done in the last decade or two.
If the Googles and Amazons keep moving in, and with a bit more size, to me it's starting to feel like DeSoto is moving to a new level. I'm not sure that the state of Mississippi realizes yet what has landed in its lap, essentially a brand-new high-income, high-growth metro in the state that's attracting top companies from around the world.
I'm beginning to sense that DeSoto is beginning to get a reputation as a place to move to in its own right, for both quality of life and job opportunities, the way the Huntsville and NWA areas have done in the last decade or two.
If the Googles and Amazons keep moving in, and with a bit more size, to me it's starting to feel like DeSoto is moving to a new level. I'm not sure that the state of Mississippi realizes yet what has landed in its lap, essentially a brand-new high-income, high-growth metro in the state that's attracting top companies from around the world.
No question on the reputation, it's had this for a number of years. I have heard that there is some difference in the business tax code that keeps the white collar jobs over in Memphis, but the warehousing comes to Mississippi. Not real sure about the accuracy of that. I know the state income tax certainly does not keep people from moving to Mississippi, even if they work in Tennessee, at the end of the day the cost of living in Desoto is cheaper.
I think Desoto will always be semi-tied to Memphis due to the airport and Fedex, such a huge employer. Tunica casinos are a bust (but certainly not Biloxi, not sure what the clueless poster Bamaman1 is talking about there, Biloxi is booming), but that's never really affected Desoto County in any real way anyway, except for stealing resources.
I think the whole corridor from there all the way to Tupelo and up is ripe for development.
One reason I compared DeSoto to Huntsville and Northwest Arkansas is because DeSoto's median income is slightly higher than both Huntsville and NWA, with DeSoto growing slightly faster than Huntsville and slightly slower than NWA. Huntsville has about twice the population and NWA about three times the population.
DeSoto will pass 200,000 in population soon. Perhaps 300,000 is the number above which an area begins to feel large enough to feel like an independent region in its own right.
While DeSoto is definitely an extension of and now important part of the Memphis metro, it's worth noting that DeSoto's cities these days are clean, well managed and confident, and DeSoto has a remarkable amount of nice industries. It's by no means only residential subdivisions on the edge of Memphis but increasingly feels like its own place, decidedly safer and cleaner than its neighbor.
I'm beginning to sense that DeSoto is beginning to get a reputation as a place to move to in its own right, for both quality of life and job opportunities, the way the Huntsville and NWA areas have done in the last decade or two.
If the Googles and Amazons keep moving in, and with a bit more size, to me it's starting to feel like DeSoto is moving to a new level. I'm not sure that the state of Mississippi realizes yet what has landed in its lap, essentially a brand-new high-income, high-growth metro in the state that's attracting top companies from around the world.
I would strongly second comparing it to Huntsville. It's basically an "escape" from Memphis. Desoto County is the place where young professionals can make a way for themselves without having to deal with Memphis being...Memphis.
And much like Georgia in 2003, major Atlanta corporations had quite a bit to do with threatening the state's politicians over it's 1956 state flag. I do think something very similar happened to the Mississippi flag with Amazon and Google two weeks ago.
It's the conundrum of being a conservative sometimes, what's the point of being socially conservative if hyper-liberal corporations threaten your state's economy over it?
Don't be surprised if an uptick of populism occurs.
And much like Georgia in 2003, major Atlanta corporations had quite a bit to do with threatening the state's politicians over it's 1956 state flag. I do think something very similar happened to the Mississippi flag with Amazon and Google two weeks ago.
It's the conundrum of being a conservative sometimes, what's the point of being socially conservative if hyper-liberal corporations threaten your state's economy over it?
Don't be surprised if an uptick of populism occurs.
See post #4, once again Amazon and Google have nothing to do with the state flag. The Georgia flag was changed via state referendum and internal political pressure, it can be arguable if there was economic pressure or not (the ones claiming that were politicians). Woke capitalism has it's limits - namely corporate profit - cheap labor and low tax in MS will beat "woke" each and every time. Otherwise, do how do you explain corporations that moved to China in years past? You think China, Peoples Republic of, is "woke" and progressive?
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