Life In West Memphis, Arkansas

Main Street West Memphis Taste of the Town is back and bigger this year as it moves to Southland's party tent. Come be a part of the excitement tasting food and enjoy live music while local restaurants and food trucks battle it out for the Best Appetizer, Best Entree, and Best Dessert. Event tickets are $50 and purchased in advance.

The City of West Memphis is a municipal government organization located in West Memphis, Arkansas, dedicated to providing essential public services and supporting the community’s growth and development. The city oversees a variety of departments, including public safety, public works, utilities, sanitation, transportation, and administrative services. The City of West Memphis offers career opportunities in law enforcement, firefighting, engineering, utility operations, maintenance, customer service, and local government administration.

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Image credit: City of West Memphis Facebook page

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A little good energy will make you turn the car all the way around.

That’s exactly what happened when I drove past Take 5 Oil Change on Missouri Street in West Memphis. Deion and Kortland were outside holding signs, smiling, laughing, and looking like they were enjoying their day. Their energy caught my attention, and then I remembered: I actually did need an oil change. (Let's not talk about how long I've been putting it off!)

So I turned around and pulled right in.

In a community like West Memphis, where so much of daily life happens behind the wheel, keeping your car running is part of keeping everything else moving. Between getting to work, taking children to school, running errands, and heading across the river, car maintenance deserves a place on the calendar. Mine just happened to get scheduled by two friendly faces on the side of the road.

Inside, Deion, Devin, and Kortland kept that same welcoming energy going. The team got to work, and my oil change was handled in about 10 minutes.

Now, could I have been back on the road that quickly? Absolutely. But if you know me, you already know I had to get to talking. I wanted to learn a little more about the people behind those smiles.

The People Behind the Service

What stood out during our conversation was how Deion talked about his team.

As a young manager in West Memphis, he’s thinking about how to run an efficient shop while supporting the people working alongside him. He spoke about the younger students they employ and his interest in helping them succeed. I appreciated hearing that concern for their growth come through in our conversation.

Those everyday interactions are part of how I get to know a community. I pay attention to how people welcome a stranger, how they speak about their coworkers, and what they take pride in. During this visit, I got to see a team working together and hear a manager talk about the responsibility he feels toward the people he leads.

I love meeting folks who care about running a smooth business and giving back through the opportunities they create for others. It gave me something to appreciate long after the oil change was finished.

Finding Your Place in a New Community

Relocating involves plenty of big decisions, but settling in also happens through smaller discoveries: a favorite breakfast spot, a familiar face at a local business, or a conversation you weren’t expecting to have.

As a single mom, I know moving means rebuilding your list of providers - from schools and healthcare to someone who can help keep your car running. Finding those places takes time. On this particular day, a little roadside enthusiasm made the search easier.

If you’re getting settled in the area - or you’ve been here for years and your maintenance reminder is trying to get your attention - go see Deion, Devin, and Kortland at Take 5 Oil Change, 1521 Missouri Street in West Memphis.

Tell them Sweet P. sent you. And if you stay longer than 10 minutes because you got to talking, I understand.

Growing up, if a Saturday morning began with two large, rectangular white boxes sitting on the kitchen table, we knew it was going to be a good weekend.

Donuts from our local shop were an occasional treat, usually picked up Friday night to enjoy Saturday morning. With five kids and plenty of others joining the mix, my mom always grabbed two boxes filled to the brim: regular glazed, twists, sugar-dusted, Boston cream, jelly-filled, Long Johns—you name it. Donuts as different as each of our personalities.

That shop helped set my expectations for what a good donut could be. So when I moved to the West Memphis area, one of my first questions was: Where are the sweets?

I’m a dessert person. On a recent visit to Colton’s Steakhouse and Grill in Marion, the waitress laughed when I asked for my cheesecake to come out first. But hey, I’m grown. I’m going to spend my money the way I like.

One of my favorite dessert destinations since moving here has been Howard’s Donuts, hands down.

Tucked into a small shopping center in West Memphis, Howard’s greets you with the smell of a little something sweet as soon as you open the door. On my visit, a café area to the left offered seasonal drinks, while T-shirts, hoodies, and other merchandise to the right gave customers another way to support the business. Straight ahead was what I had come for: the donuts.

I had driven past Howard’s for nearly six months before finally stopping in. I wanted a good glazed donut—my favorite—and decided it was time.

A young woman with a bright smile and a kind voice greeted me. Another man and I had arrived around the same time, and while she finished helping a customer, we studied the selection. When she asked who was next, we looked at each other. Neither of us was ready. It was our first visit, and we both needed a minute.

We laughed, then he explained that he lived about an hour away. His wife had seen Howard’s on TikTok, and he had decided to make the trip.

"An hour for donuts?" I thought, "They must really be good."

The woman behind the counter joined our laughter and told us that customers came from across the region to visit Howard’s.

That conversation stayed with me. As someone who works in communications, I spend a lot of time thinking about how people discover businesses and what encourages them to walk through the door. Here was a customer who had made an hour-long trip because something his wife saw online caught her attention.

I later shared the encounter on LinkedIn because it illustrated something I’ve learned through developing communications strategies and creating content: effective digital marketing gives people a reason to act.

For a local food business, that can mean showing the texture of a fresh donut, introducing the people behind the counter, or capturing an experience customers want to have themselves. The man beside me had traveled about an hour after his wife saw Howard’s on TikTok—a reminder that content can reach beyond the person watching and become part of a conversation, a recommendation, and eventually a purchase.

One visit doesn’t tell us the full impact of a business’s marketing, but it does show how online discovery can bring someone through the door. For businesses in West Memphis, that creates an opportunity to turn the products, people, and everyday moments customers already enjoy into stories that give someone else a reason to stop in.

For people getting to know West Memphis, those recommendations can also be an invitation to explore. I live in Marion, and finding favorite places in West Memphis has been part of making this area home. Each visit gives me another reason to get out, meet people, and pay attention to the businesses around me.

Howard’s has become one of those favorites for a straightforward reason: the donuts are good. The staff is friendly, and what I’ve picked up has been fresh. I came looking for a glazed donut, and I found a place I wanted to return to.

If you’re exploring West Memphis, stop in and choose something sweet. Give yourself a minute at the counter—you may need it.

Those two white boxes still remind me of home. I’m glad to have found a place here that brings back a little of that Saturday-morning feeling.

West Memphis is developing a 1,000-acre industrial rail park near Marion to capitalize on doubled rail traffic stemming from a major Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern merger. This project, alongside a new $4 billion Google data center and an $800 million bridge project, is driving significant job growth and infrastructure investment in the region. announcement. West Memphis is setting the stage for massive career opportunities. Read more about this development at Memphis Business Journal.

Arkansas State University Mid-South is a public community college in West Memphis serving students across the Mid-South. The college employs faculty, administrative, technical, student services, and other support professionals focused on education, workforce development, and student success.

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