Success Stories In Retail Recruitment



Serving a Rural Community - West Plains, MO

West Plains’ Challenge
Situated in south central Missouri, near the Arkansas border, West Plains is a small town with a growing need for retail services.

Recognizing this need, and wanting to make sure they landed the appropriate retailers, the leaders of the Greater West Plains Area Chamber of Commerce, City of West Plains and the West Plains Economic Development Corporation contacted Buxton.

The challenge of West Plains’ leaders was to correctly define their trade area, so they could present it accurately in their economic development efforts.

Buxton’s Solution
Performing its CommunityID^® analysis, Buxton assessed the West Plains retail market. Because people in this community, nestled in the Ozarks, are used to driving long distances to work or to shop, Buxton defined the West Plains’ drive-time trade area using a 30-minute driving distance.

Not surprisingly, the analysis showed a trade area with a much greater population than that of the city of West Plains itself. "We have a city population of 11,000, about 40,000 people in the county, but the 30-minute drive time reveals 150,000 people," says Kris Norman, President, Greater West Plains Area Chamber of Commerce.

Buxton’s analysis of the buying habits and lifestyles of the consumers in the trade area resulted in a list of ideal retail matches for West Plains.

The Results
West Plains’ leaders took the Buxton list and put it to work. To date, they have landed two retailers on the list.

Before contacting one of the stores named by Buxton—Goody’s Family Clothing—Norman performed some research by driving to the retailer’s location closest to West Plains. At the store, about 50 miles away in Mountain Home, Ark., Norman was surprised to count at least 10 shoppers from West Plains that he knew personally. With the information from Buxton, and his confidence in the correctness of this retailer for his town, Norman contacted Goody’s. At about the same time, the developer of a West Plains shopping center attended the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) trade show in Las Vegas and spoke to a Goody’s representative. The result is the recent grand opening of the new Goody’s Family Clothing store in West Plains. Another retailer from the Buxton list, Hibbett Sports, is building a store in West Plains, and other retailers and restaurants have expressed interest in the community.

Norman is enthusiastic in his praise for Buxton. "Buxton provides great tools for selling the buying habits of the people in our community," he says.

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