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The biggest client is Inland Storage Distribution Center, a subsidiary of Beatrice Foods. The company's underground storage space amounts to a staggering 23 million cu. ft., enough to keep the food to supply a meal to every man, woman and child in America, all within 26 miles of the geographic center of the 48 contiguous states. Inland President Warren Lewis whimsically calls the facility the "best little warehouse in Kansas."
Employees report the caves are fine for working. "Nobody feels claustrophobic," says Lewis. Worker productivity is higher down under, says Leroy Rodgers, secretary-treasurer of the Kansas City Envelope Co., "because there are no windows to stare out of." Nonetheless, no one is in a mood to live there, at least not yet.