With rail access, Hemingway grew into a market town for local agricultural products.

Cotton declined after 1921, when the boll weevil arrived, but was already being replaced by flue-cured tobacco as the primary money crop for farmers.

Other local products were naval stores from the pine forests (later replaced by timbering), corn, soybeans, wheat, and vegetables.

Hemingway is near the Pee Dee River, which was the main commercial route for the area until the coming of the railroad.

[6] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.9 square miles (2.3 km2), all of it land.

Important industries today are Tupperware (plastic kitchenware), House of Raeford (meat products), C-V Unlimited (remanufactured auto parts), Don's Scrap Iron and Metal Co., Southeastern Wire Fabricators, Inc. (manufactured wire products), and Palmetto Paper Tube.

Williamsburg County runs a bus service for workers who commute to nearby Myrtle Beach, which offers jobs in the hospitality industry and construction.

[9] Hemingway has always been associated with Johnsonville, which, though divided by a county line, is only 4 miles (6.4 km) north, and they are sometimes referred to locally as the twin cities.

Hemingway recently completed a new industrial park midway between the two cities, with a deep well and sewer service.