Uncategorized, Best Practices, Economic Development, Impact DashBoard

Trends in Rural Texas Economic Development

Miss the webinar for economic development in small town/rural Texas? Just feel like watching it again? You’re in luck – we recorded the webinar and have the video available for you.

During the webinar, we were very fortunate to be joined by Aaron Farmer, Senior Vice President at The Retail Coach. Aaron shared how retailers are now seeking locations that were previously unrealistic, such a downtowns. He also shared what retail concepts are currently hot in the market (such as fast casual dining, fitness centers, smaller specialty grocery stores), and which are shrinking in popularity (such as bookstores, stationary stores, and shipping/postal stores). Finally, Aaron shared some metrics that they use to identify what type retail a community should seek and where that retail should locate within that community. These metrics include knowing the retail trade area, cell phone shopper tracking, demographic profiling, psychographic lifestyle segmentation, and using a gap analysis to identify retail opportunity.

Next, Paul Scheuren, Principal & Economist at Impact DataSource, shared some trends that he has observed: E-commerce sales are increasing at a faster rate than overall economic growth which makes warehousing more vital if a company desires to compete with Amazon’s quick shipping to consumers with strategically placed distribution centers. He also commented on how businesses value flexibility when dealing with incentives, and what information is vital to share with your board and council when convincing them to support an incentive. Paul then opened up Impact Dashboard, our web-based economic and fiscal impact software, and he input two examples of projects: one retail and one manufacturing. While viewing the model, the audience was able to understand how the software can help them explain the benefits and implications of the project when presenting to stakeholders.

Slides