About 50 miles north of Birmingham, Alabama, along Interstate 65, there’s a Walmart distribution center that holds about as much Walmart folklore as merchandise.
The tale that people in the DC love to share goes something like this:
Sam Walton was looking for a good location for a new distribution center in the area. “He flew his plane over Cullman and saw all the chicken coops in our county,” shares Charles Childers, quality assurance and systems ops manager.
Charles can speak to the 40-year history of the facility because he’s been there since day one — and he’s one of a whopping 20 associates who have been with the DC since the start.
“Mr. Sam thought the people of the community must be very hard-working to have so many chicken houses, so he selected Cullman for the site of the DC,” Charles says.
And while we may never know for certain if Walmart’s founder made the pick thanks to poultry, this story does explain why the DC’s mascot pin is a chicken flying a plane.
As you’d expect, times have changed since the early 1980s. DC 6006 started off as a Walmart Primark fashion center receiving goods. About a year after opening, it started shipping out. It’s also served as a shoe distribution center, a returns center, a fulfillment center during the holiday season and even a temporary housing location for stores going through renovations.
Back in the early days, freight came through on the nearby railroad tracks near the DC, associates were using pallet jacks, everything was handwritten and — the story goes — you might run into Mr. Sam in the breakroom … or even his wife, Helen Walton. In fact, the facility has the distinction of being the first DC to win the Helen Walton Community Engagement Award, presented by Helen herself.
The DC has always been a large part of the community — whether it’s supporting local schools, hosting fundraising events or contributing to the growth of the city.
Today, Walmart employs more than 2,000 people in Cullman, a city of 18,000 people. And in 2023, Walmart announced plans to invest in renovating and upgrading the DC using the latest automation technology.
Longtime associates like Donna Brown, June Davenport and Debbie McNatt welcome the new technology.
“Last year I had thought about retiring,” Donna confesses. “Then when they started talking about this robotics coming in, I thought, ‘Oh, man, I can't leave now!’”
June agrees, adding, “It’s advancement. It’s just keeping up with the world.”
For Debbie, upcoming automation is all about efficiency. “It’s enabled us to do our jobs faster and more efficiently. You look at the computers on the lift, the robotic tech — that’s something that 40 years ago was not dreamt of.”
Charles also plans to stick around to see how tech levels up the workflow. “I’m getting close to retirement, but really want to hang around and see automation. That’s going to be the biggest next thing for Walmart.”
So, in classic Walmart fashion, the thing that never changes is, well, change — that and the associates embracing it!
