The Buellton City Council collectively agreed that a flourishing retail market within the city is a subject they must focus on for future growth. The Buxton Company gave a presentation to the Council on Jan. 28 explaining how the company and similar ones can help cities identify retail and restaurant opportunities that will prosper within a community.
These types of customer analytic companies can distinguish sites in a community that offer the most potential, as well as profile the shopping and dining habits of citizens so that a community can market itself to retailers and developers.
“We all know the benefits of a strong retail sector, to satisfy your constituents, desire to shop and dine at home, increase sales tax base, decrease retail leakage you might experience, which is going outside your community to shop or dine, create new and permanent jobs, and really expand your overall economic opportunity,” Lisa Hill, Vice President of Buxton, said. Buxton has worked with more than 450 communities in the U.S. by using their Community ID program to help target the retailers that fit best into those communities.
Buxton has been successful because of their ability to gather data from the consumer and develop detailed profiles of their wants and needs. The company is then able to match the consumer with the best-suited retailers. They also give the communities the tools they need to market themselves to these retailers.
“Community ID is a proven economic development strategy,” Hill said, “It’s designed to be fully executable and actionable within your community. It gives you the ability to not only directly sell to retail and restaurant concepts that are looking to expand in markets like yours, but it also gives you the ability to partner with your local businesses and really help them grow.”
Some Council Members had concerns about this process during a troubled economy when sales tax revenue is down, however, Hill responded saying that Buxton is seeing an uptake in clients, not just in the retail sector, but in the public sector.
“Cities are saying, ‘We have to do something to turn this around because we depend on the sales tax, and with businesses closing we need to figure out a way to become more aggressive and more proactive — to not only prevent our local businesses from closing and doing something to help them, but also to attract new businesses to our community so we can continue to increase our sales tax base,” Hill said.
After the presentation, the Council decided they wanted to move forward with identifying retailers and obtaining goals for future growth of the retail sector; however, they came to the conclusion it would be best to hear other presentations from similar companies to make sure the $70,000 cost of Buxton’s proposal was competitive.
“Because we have not entertained any other companies that do this like work, I would be a little reluctant to move in this direction,” Mayor Victoria Pointer said. “I would caution the Council to be sure that we have thoroughly investigated our options.”
John Petersen of the Economic Development Task Force and a retail property owner in Buellton suggested that the Council not delay the process for long because of the competitiveness of the market. He also suggested that a program such as Buxton’s would be compatible with the city’s Visioning Process that will soon be commencing.
When a company like Buxton is selected, Buellton becomes one step closer to attaining the type of businesses that are wanted and needed in the community, as well as helping to build the sustainability of the city. This type of process is expected to give the City of Buellton a strategy that will guarantee the profitability of its retail sector for years to come.