The Last Word

The supply chain industry in the U.S. is currently all abuzz concerning consumer fulfillment centers which are currently undergoing major transitions to larger size and increasing electronic capacity and sophistication61 . These supply chain industry developments play to WC’s strengths in regards to available open tracts of land needed to accommodate the increasing size footprints of future fulfillment centers located strategically alongside major interstate thoroughfares (e.g., I-40).

The rapid growth in electronic consumer transactions of physical goods is increasing the physical demand for supply chain distribution logistics, which in turn is increasing the digital business demand for information technology, cloud-based platforms and Internet services. This economic tie between the nation’s physical and digital economies will help to drive the development of WC’s local IT industry and public IT infrastructure.

Wilson County’s city of Mt Juliet promotes itself as “City between the Lakes”, a reference to the local topography. Well, noting the physical economic importance of Interstate 40 which crisscrosses Wilson County, AND the growing digital economic importance of WC’s evolving broadband Internet “electronic highway”, might an appropriate 21st century moniker for Wilson County be the “County Between the Highways”- one physical, the other electronic?

Appreciation and Thanks are expressed to CU faculty and staff, as well as other individuals and organizations for their general support and for materials used in this report. In particular, we would like to thank the Tennessee Department of Economic & Community Development, Tennessee Department of Revenue, Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Cooperative, United Communications, AT&T, TDS, Wilson County, City of Lebanon, City of Mt Juliet, and the Watertown Chamber of Commerce.

Three beggars are begging in Metropolis. The first one wrote “beg” on his broken steel cup. After one day he had received ten bucks. The second one wrote “beg.com” on his cup. After one day he had received hundreds of thousand of dollars. Someone even wanted to take him to NASDAQ. The third one wrote “eBeg” on his cup. Both IBM and HP sent vice-presidents to talk to him about a strategic alliance and offered him free hardware and professional consulting. Larry Ellison claimed on CNBC that eBeg uses 95% Oracle technology. i2 announced begTradeMatrix, a b2b industry portal to offer supply chain integration for the beggar. And Cisco just announced that virtually all eBeg traffic runs over their equipment.

61 “How Ecommerce is Transforming Today’s Supply Chain,” Rakuten Super Logistics, October 9th 2019