d to close their doors, and few were able to reopen.
The disappearance of many of these locally owned companies has led thousands of shoppers and diners to recommit to the “shop local” trend, in hopes that the businesses that are still hanging on will be able to keep their doors open.
Small businesses are essential, often providing more jobs in a given city than their larger counterparts. They also often lack the resources, like cash reserves, needed to persevere through unprecedented times like these. For example, in New York City, where locally owned companies represent 98% of the area’s employers and provide more than 3 million jobs, more than one-third of small businesses are expected to close due to the pandemic.
Big businesses, on the other hand, are generally able to weather storms such as these. Giant companies like Chase Bank, Target, and Amazon aren’t relying on this month’s revenues to keep the lights on and employees on payroll. However, this line between big businesses that don’t need the money and small businesses that so desperately do begins to blur when major companies that are headquartered in small towns are concerned.
When major corporations like Walmart or Caterpillar are located in a smaller or more rural town, they tend to be the area’s largest employer. The collapse or failure of any one of these businesses wouldn’t just be a blow to the corporation, but would devastate the local economy as well.
In the following slides, Stacker has compiled a list of 50 of these big businesses that are headquartered in small towns, using data from the various company and local government sites, as well as Forbes and Fortune. Many of them are examples of companies where failure, whether due to the coronavirus or otherwise, would ruin the host city.
While there aren’t strict criteria for what defines either a big business or a small town, each of these corporations makes billions or millions of dollars in annual revenue, employs thousands of individuals, or has hundreds of storefronts. Additionally, no town on our list tops 75,000 residents.
From Walmart to Whirlpool, read on to find out which big businesses have established their headquarters in small-town America.
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