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Four towns consider attracting new businesses through recruitment company

6 mins read
Town official, business owners and residents from four towns listen to a retail recruitment representative Dennis Maher of the Buxton Company talk about how they can help bring new businesses to the area
Town officials, business owners and residents from four towns listen to a retail recruitment company  representative Dennis Maher, at left, talk about how they can help bring new businesses to the area.
retail recruitment representative Dennis Maher of the Buxton Company
Retail recruitment representative Dennis Maher of the Buxton Company.

JAY – Town officials and interested residents from the towns of Farmington, Jay, Livermore Falls, and Wilton met Wednesday night with a retail recruitment company representative to explore the idea of reeling in new businesses in a collaborate bid to boost economic development in the area.

Over the past year, Alison Hagerstrom, executive director of the Greater Franklin Development Council has coordinated the effort to bring neighboring town officials together to explore ideas for economic growth.

On Wednesday, 25 people including selectmen, town managers, business owners and residents from the four towns heard what the possibilities might be if a retail recruiter were hired. The cost to do so is expected to total $50,000 each year of a three-year contract. If all four towns decide to move forward, the annual cost would be split among the participating towns at $12,500 each. Farmington, Livermore Falls, and Wilton could choose to use tax increment financing revenue to pay for the service since its goal is economic development based, an allowable use of TIF funding. The town of Jay’s share, should the Selectboard approve adding it to the annual town meeting budget, would need voters’ approval at its town meeting in April.

Buxton representative Dennis Maher of Fort Worth, Texas, explained that his company compiles detailed consumer and market data from any given community and works to identify retailers that would best fit the consumers’ needs and goals of the community. In addition, they work to strengthen and retain existing businesses, he said, by identifying what goods or services may be lacking in the area.

The Buxton Company, founded in 1994 in Texas, has more than 3,500 clients and hundreds of employees who work to match retailers with locations in communities with a proven customer base through extensive data collection. Maher said one out of four jobs in Maine directly supports retail. Smaller businesses and entrepreneurs are the main driving forces of the economy. “Retail is booming,” he said.

In response to a question from Jay Select Board member Keith Cornelio about the growing popularity of online shopping possibly cutting into the bricks and mortar retail store business. Maher said the average consumer spends an average of only 5 percent online. He pointed out that people continue to go to the store to buy food,  go out to eat at a restaurant or prefer the big screen movie theater, things they can’t do online. Overall, people still prefer the shopping experience to the online experience.

Online purchases “are a small percentage of where we’re spending our money,” he said.

Buxton is the largest customer data aggregate company in the country whose mission is to find out exactly how people spend their money each day. Analysts at the company take that information, predict how the market will look five years from now and provide that information to retailers looking to set up shop in communities in need of what they have to offer in communities looking to entice more retail businesses.

The company partners with 3,000 retailers nationwide. While 80,000 sites were evaluated for new potential retail businesses in the last 12 months, of that total, 7,500 stores opened during the same period. A total of 30,000 stores opened across the country last year.

Buxton, “boosts efforts for retail recruitment,” Maher said. They find out what customers are specifically buying and where they are making their purchases. They collect this data through things like credit card and cell phone use, with more than 200 kinds of information collected. Once the data is compiled, Buxton identifies the products the community uses.

“We work to understand who the customers are,” Maher said. Once collected the retailer recruitment begins to find a match based on what’s needed, the properties available, for example, with retailers looking at hundreds of different factors before settling on a community to locate a new store.

These analytics can also be of use to communities that are hoping to attract new businesses. “Attract the right retailer and create jobs,” Maher said.

Farmington Selectman Andy Buckland wondered if the four towns should decide to hire Buxton, what would keep them from competing against each other in order to bring the new retailer to their town. Maher said all of the towns should support any new business, because employees hired at a new business come from the area and “activity breeds more activity,” he said.

In the end, it was agreed that each town’s decision on whether to hire the recruitment company would be done on a conditional basis. Should one or more towns opt out, the shared cost would be higher for those towns approving it, which, in turn, may make the idea less desirable.

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16 Comments

  1. Certainly the presentation as reported looks to be a sales job to the towns – and so one would expect that Mr. Maher’s answers would paint a favorable picture to hiring Buxton to provide their services. All of the spending he points to are not in areas that we need more businesses (gas, groceries, entertainment). I disagree with his assessment of the amount of shopping done on-line or through catalogues – I suspect it is much higher than the 5% he quoted. And then there is spending done out-of-area (read Big Box stores), and those stores don’t seem to be interested in moving here – and I doubt it’s because they are not aware of our beautiful community and it’s hard working labor force. And those Big Box stores would likely drive out smaller local businesses if they did move to this area.
    I support Alison’s drive to organize area governments to explore how to support a thriving economic community here, but I do question if this $150,000 will bring any real results (for us, I know it will bring favorable results to Buxton).
    The best way to support local growth is to shop local and keep more money here at home.
    Perhaps we can attract Buxton to set up shop here in our area.

  2. Seems to me that if we hire the Buxton Company we can do away with our own Greater Franklin Development Council? I think we already have enough retail outlets in the area that pay low wages anyway.

  3. If it is to good to be true it usually is!!Maybe the towns will win the foreign lottery or get that inheritance they didn’t know about!! No!!No!!No!!No!!

  4. I was always under the impression that the town(s) paid their town managers, as part of their duties, to solicit and seek out new businesses. I think we should save our $ 37,500.00 and not continue to increase our property tax obligation.

  5. why are the local businesses paying to bring in the chain stores that will shut them down? Why are we spending tax money to bring in a company that will ship more money out of state?

  6. How do us “working poor class” that pay more than our fair of taxes suppose to sustain more minimum wage retail shops by hiring consultants to tell us what will work. What an embarrassing article for our chambers and managers of our community’s

  7. We don’t need more retailers,we need better paying jobs so local people can support the retailers we have in the area.Would like to see some hard facts before I believe that only five percent of shopping is done online.

  8. My cousin from TX! Sorry I missed it, we were celebrating another field hockey win! No matter what the towns decide I’m sure you gave a great presentation!

  9. Some retailers can make a community poorer. The minimum wages they pay don’t make up for the amount of money that leaves the community. So many are a net lose for the community.

    Farmington does not need more retailer selling product made somewhere else. Farmington needs businesses that create local products and exports them to other communities, so there is a net gain for the community.

    Farmington also need to attract highly payed telecommuters who want a small town life style. They bring in a lot of money from outside the community and spend it locally.

    A key incentive for both of these types of businesses is missing in Farmington. Farmington should realizes it needs a modern, high speed internet. The current two internet providers in town both provide slow, unreliable and inadequate 15 year old technology.

  10. I agree with Mr. Huber. One of the main reasons we moved here was for the lifestyle. Our income comes from across the country and we spend it here.

  11. Paul,

    Please explain what a Home Depot or a Lowe’s can do for you that’s not already available in the area?

    Wilton Hardware – great selection and prices – locally owned and operated
    Need lumber or building supplies? – Hammond lumber or ware butter
    Need appliances? – try sears or even better CJs in Farmington
    Garden supplies or plants – enjoy hours exploring robins flower pot

    Want to get all of these in one location? Move to a city, become a nameless consumer to a giant corporation.

    Personally I will do everything I can to buy things locally, which include opposing your big box stores that will only harm our local stores. Off to Wilton hardware to get some paint!

  12. Some of you remember when Farmington had several canneries, many farms supporting them, Wilton had a tannery, shoe shops were everywhere, woolen mills in Lewiston/Auburn, wooden-ware shops, etc., people had jobs, there was money for schools, etc. Those jobs supported additional jobs in other industries to supply the needs of those workers and their families. Now most of the manufacturing has gone out of state or out of the country. People and companies out of state don’t care about Maine’s economy, Maine people do, so that they, then their kids, can live in Maine and make a living. Without that, Maine will slowly go downhill, if people can’t make a living, they’ll leave, and people won’t come in. Maine people need to support each other’s efforts. You could open canneries in the summer (for example), buy corn, beans, beets, etc. from local farmers, stock the products in Maine stores, with Made In Maine on the label, and BUY those products to support Maine businesses to create/maintain Maine’s jobs and lifestyles. Maine could re-open and support some shoe shops, some wood-products shops, maybe a fish cannery, frozen fish plant, woolen-mill, and etc. if Maine people would support their efforts. Perhaps some things might cost a little more, but you should pay it gladly to keep Maine afloat, benefitting everyone! Think National, buy local, where you can. Maybe you need some “Made In Maine” stores to help in the effort. Don’t let out of state businesses strangle Maine’s jobs and economy. Compete every way you can! Ask “What products can Maine people make, market, and sell profitably in Maine, if Maine customers will support them?”, and get to it! “The Journey Of A Thousand Miles ……….!”

  13. A simple, quick way to begin: Try to think of things you could buy NOW that are Made In Maine vs buying similar items from out of state competition, THAT would support Maine jobs. Enterprising types could open Made In Maine shops right now, and seek out Maine Made products to sell. Maybe some existing stores would set up Made In Maine areas to make it easy to find those items, a Made In Maine section in the canned food area, frozen food area, meat, seafood, breads, shoes, clothes, etc. Restaurants could highlight their Made/Grown/Caught In Maine products, and customers could try to patronize businesses that did so. Imagine if people did these things all over the state! You don’t need to pay consultants to do that!

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