The Glidewell Story

James William Glidewell and his wife, Cleo Glidwell, began Glidewell Distributors - 22539 out of a panel truck he traded for his beloved Packard convertible, starting at their home on South 26th Street in Fort Smith, Arkansas. They began their dream after James woke up sick with the flu one day, which kept him from going to his job as a tobacco salesman. Although he was number one in his distribution company and had never missed a day of work, his boss informed him that a sick day would be a day without pay. From then on, James William Glidewell decided to leave his job to bring his own vision of distribution to life through Glidewell Distributors - 22539 with his name, phone number, and a humble beginning. The same year, his son, James Andrew Glidewell, was born, and a photo of a proud father supporting his year-old son on the front fender of the panel truck would eventually become the centerpiece in the office of a bustling compound of warehouses and computer screens, loading semi-trucks and intercom directives.

By 1959, the little business outgrew the family’s home, turning every garage in the neighborhood into a warehouse. JW devoted 14 hours a day to the relationships and expectations of suppliers and customers, and his wife was equally busy with the checking in of freight and sales from a desk in the living room. To expand their business, JW bought property on North 31st Street, in the midst of what was then the industrial warehouse district of Fort Smith. Of the many relationships that defined the Glidewell venture, a particular name and name brand became a signature in the company’s inventory and in the national consumer’s lexicon: Frito-Lay.

Herman Lay and JW found friendship and business to meld. Glidewell Distributing was one of the final two such companies to maintain a Frito-Lay wholesaler profile, a lucrative and demanding partnership that ended only when the snack company ultimately incorporated its own distribution system in the late 1960s, with the merger of Pepsi-Cola. At the same time, JW had diversified his inventory to include not only candy and snacks but also drinks, groceries, and a wider selection of candy. The evolution of the convenience store was reflected in the evolution of Glidewell Distributing.

During this time, Glidewell Distributing would conquer an uphill battle with the growing tobacco industry, which became a commodity and a political parlay. Permits to sell tobacco were granted by the companies that harvested the crop, and they were, at best, difficult to attain without politically influential efforts. JW applied for and was denied permits from several tobacco companies and, in typical form, fought for what was right. After suing big tobacco companies, including Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds, and Brown & Williamson, JW was finally able to win the suit with little compensation, but the biggest reward was expanding its inventory to snacks, candy, basic groceries, and now, tobacco.

The emerging convenience store was on the rise, as well: intersections were marked by the “C-stores’” epidemic, a one-stop, park-at-the-door, on-the-way shopping favorite. Those daily needs, gasoline, cigarettes, snacks, and basic groceries became daily c-store stops. By including the now-available tobacco products in their inventory line, Glidewell Distributing was a pioneer in the wholesale industry. So, with this rise in C-store consumerism and the influx of the tremendous revenues generated by the tobacco sales, JW’s son, Jim Glidewell, introduced a sales force into the organization’s mix. Sales representatives would now field the company’s accounts and monitor the needs of their customer base. Jim understood what his father had nurtured: this business is a people-to-people business.

This was the last year of JW’s life, and the Glidewells were still doing the best at what they had always done. They were working hard. Around a year later, Glidewell Distributing switched to a dual system of sales and delivery.

The Glidewell Distributing Company bought 20 acres south of Fort Smith and built a compound that is now surrounded by pastures. Just off Highway 71 South, it is both a convenient location and a tranquil setting for the otherwise constant moving of inventory.

In the course of their development, Glidewell Distributing decided to buy their competition, Southern Wholesale, which was a family business with its own rich history that expanded Glidewell’s abilities to serve even more customers. [Read more about Southern Wholesale…] Included within that purchase agreement was the acquisition of its customized computer system, complete with software honed and tested on the national market by Southern’s co-owner, Linda Evans Schmidt. Linda had grown up in the industry and recalls that, when she learned to add, she made the bank deposits for the Evans Tobacco and Candy Company. She witnessed firsthand the evolution of automation in her workplace, still amused by the awe and fascination she felt when the company’s first calculator was purchased. Large and complicated to use, the “piece of machinery” did nothing but multiply. Its impact, however, marked the beginnings of an innovative effort to integrate the use of computers for inventory and management control.