Four local towns are considering partnering with a retail research company in a bid to draw new restaurants and retailers into their community.
Buxton, a national company that gathers and utilizes analytical data to help match communities with retailers, currently works with more than 3,000 clients across the country. They attempt to identify which specific businesses would match the preferences of local-area consumers, as well as what retail services the local community is missing. Buxton told local officials that out of the approximately 30,000 new retailer outlets that opened last year, 7,500 of them utilized data from their company in some way.
As an example, Farmington Board of Selectman Chair Joshua Bell said at Tuesday’s meeting, Buxton had provided local town officials with data regarding “retail leakage:” basically unsatisfied demand that results in people shopping elsewhere. Men’s clothing, for example, was highlighted as a retail sector where there was greater local demand than supply.
The data also works for local businesses seeking to understand their market. Another example, related by Jay Town Manager Shiloh Lafreniere at Monday’s Board of Selectperson meeting, would involve a new business attempting to determine whether their community preferred Pepsi or Coke products. Buxton could provide local businesses with data about their customers.
As far as attracting new businesses, Buxton would also look at sustainability, in an attempt to prevent businesses from moving into the area and failing within a short period of time.
After developing a profile of what businesses would work in the area, Buxton would approach companies that match the profile and provide an introduction on the part of the town. Local town and economic development officials would then step in and try to bring the retailers or restaurants into the area.
Buxton originally offered their services to Farmington, but at $50,000 a year for a 3-year contract, the cost was too high. It was suggested that perhaps Buxton could offer the service to a number of communities, and thus bring the cost per town down to something local towns could pay. Buxton agreed to research and market four communities as one entity at the $50,000/year cost: Farmington, Wilton, Jay and Livermore Falls.
Three of those communities could choose to use Tax Increment Financing funds to pay the cost. The fourth, Jay, does not have a TIF district.
Town managers and a selectperson from each of the four communities met with the Buxton representative and then returned to their respective towns to report on the offer.
Selectpersons generally showed some interest, but also concerns about whether the return would be worth the investment. Buxton operates in one Maine community, Alison Hagerstom of Greater Franklin Development Corp. said that she believed they had only recently begun moving into the state. That community, Caribou, used Buxton data to help make a pitch to Sitel, a call center company, to locate a 300-job center in the downtown.
In addition to debates about whether or not Buxton would be a good investment, town officials brought up the point that funds provided by all four towns might lay groundwork for a new restaurant or retailer moving into one of the four. While there is some secondary benefit to he next town over adding a retailer, such as making new positions available and providing products to the local-area public, the primary benefit of widening the tax base assists only the town gaining the new business.
This led to some thoughts of utilizing revenue sharing for businesses acquired through the Buxton data, although such a system raises additional questions.
Selectboards have agreed to meet as a group and continue discussing the matter. A decision to precede or not would need to be reached by each individual board.
Wilton. Please don’t waste the $ on this…
I agree Jay, total waste of taxpayer money that we do not have.
So if a new restaurant comes in and puts the existing ones out of business, how is that a plus. A waste of money is my thought. With the mill downsizing and the added costs to the taxpayers, perhaps the money they want for this service could be better spent.
I hope Jay realizes this is a waste of taxpayers money as well.
I’ll bet a “Wendy’s” would make it. Certainly not another pizza shop!!
My first thought was the same as some of the others here …. bringing in chains and outlets only puts local businesses OUT of business. I saw this happen where I used to live. As it is, the Tire Warehouse coming to Farmington is going to make things really tough on our existing local tire retailers. We should be supporting local, homegrown businesses, give THEM the grants and tax breaks if they need them!
The only way Wendy’s would survive in Farmington is to add tires, pizza, and pot to their offering. It is nearly impossible to find these items in Farmington!
I thought one of the Greater Franklin Development Corp’s goals is to identify which specific businesses would match the preferences of local-area consumers, as well as what retail services the local community is missing. Has it not done such a marketplace demand survey after all these years?
What Farmington needs is a new Farmington Diner! A good seafood place wouldn’t hurt either.
I am very glad the boards are thinking outside the box. Working together we may be able to accomplish some goals none of us could get done alone, whether it’s this project or bringing larger employers to the area.
I really could care less what soda folks like to drink. Today, I am more concerned with how the Town of Jay, hired and elected, plan on stabilizing property taxes. Now is not the time to spend our tax generated money on ” hoping ” a new restaurant would be built. The Town of Jay is on the verge of economic disaster and our officials are thinking of joining this coalition?
A similar survey was conducted by the Farmington Downtown Association just recently. We can take all the surveys and spend money on consultants (that may never have been in any business but consulting) and get no results. RESULTS come from ACTION not from another consultant charging lots of money. Hire a sharp and invested local person to go out and find businesses to come to our towns. Make their salary based on RESULTS that they get!
Farmington board–please do not waste money on this. I agree with Corey!!!
Small businesses work hard to meet the needs of the community members. We are the faces of our communities, not unknown faces making decisions in some other state that impact our small towns. Support local small businesses.
This seems like a massive waste. Find out whether your customers prefer coke or pepsi? Come on….
I have an issue with all of the people who are saying this idea is a waste of money and that we want to keep our local business going. My issue is that you never offer any reason why it is not a good idea, give some suggestions on what to do or, my main peeve, you do not understand what this research company does. Everyone bashes on the “elected” saying they need to figure this out. Ever occur to anyone that the revenue problem that is coming our way may be beyond the “elected”?. The collapse of the backbone of this towns economy is right around the corner. This is something that no one wants to accept nor has the knowledge to handle. I am glad to see that the elected are looking at all options. The only thing I have to ask is why it is taking so long to act. We have known for a few years that the mills in the area are in trouble and we will at some point be loosing the tax revenue. Why have we not created business incentives to get manufacturing jobs? What about other options? Use the nearby attractions like the tourist at sugarloaf and open an Auditorium/concert hall. What about What about a casino? Look at what it is doing for Oxford. It may be a long shot but what about doing something like storyland but have it a year around park.
Now don’t get me wrong I am all for local business but how many of them employ people with a good wage, health benefits, 401k exc? Very few and the ones that do have few employees and rely on the large companies like the mills to keep it going. We need to find sustainable replacements for mill and we need to at least start before we loose all of the tax revenue.
I know it is hard sometimes to take emotions out of a situation like this but business is business and the town is a business at the core. We need to stop the whining and procrastinating and start moving forward as if the mill is closing. So when the mill does close we will not be dead in the water.
just one last question: Why have we not been trying to grow our town anyway? Wouldn’t hurt to lower some taxes.
There are plenty of people looking for a opportunity to start a new business in Farmington everyday, the problem is there are very few profitable ventures here. Unless you are partially funded by the government starting a project in Farmington is almost a waste of time. Taxes doubling in the last ten years? Probably not going to help. There is no shortage of tax revenue, it is a spending problem. Cutting and lowering taxes would do a lot more for these communities to attract business than more wasteful spending on some new study, which in effect raises taxes higher and drives more businesses away.
John has some good ideas on growth but is mistaken of a couple of points. Towns were never ment to be a business or even to employ people. The only real function of the town was to make sure there was a functioning school house. Employing town employees has only come about in recent times. Elected officials are given the authority to represent the people and to do their best. In Jay it is a different situation. A very complicated economic world problem concerning the use of paper in today’s world. John also brings another good question to this discussion ” why did it take so long to act? ” to what we knew was about to happen. This is my point. What took so long for the people we employ to anticipate, plan and act on what we knew was happening?