City Council hears Retail Recruitment Study Results
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
The Eagle Pass City Council heard a presentation from Aaron Farmer of The Retail Coach, a national consulting firm and pioneer of the retail recruitment hired by the City of Eagle Pass to conduct a study and implement a plan of retail business recruitment to the community.
Farmer presented vital information collected under his firm’s retail consumer research study within Eagle Pass.
Farmer advised City Council that they had done a license plate analysis of U.S. vehicles parked within many local shopping and retail establishments within the community to better ascertain a shoppers map to calculate where such retail activity is concentrated and occurring. “It shows us who is shopping in Eagle Pass,” said Farmer.
Farmer then keyed in on the primary retail consumers which shop on a daily basis in Eagle Pass and secondary retail consumers who are not coming to shop on a daily basis but are mostly seen on the weekends.
Farmer’s demographic study determined that the primary retail shopper indicator for Eagle Pass was close to 55,530 people who shop in Eagle Pass on a daily basis with a possible extended growth within the next five years due to growth. Under the secondary retail shopper demographic study, Farmer stated that over 88,000 people are shopping in Eagle Pass on a daily basis, a majority falling within the younger demographic age group.
“Your incomes compared to the State of Texas average are a little bit low. $ 48,418 is the average household income and per capita income is at $14,343. But you make up for that in population,” said Farmer.
Farmer also noted that under the secondary retail shopper study, the average income was also on the low side but also was made up by the amount of persons indicated coming in to shop.
Farmer also stated that Eagle Pass has a very young population and that is a strong determining factor when it comes down to recruiting retailers.
“ Retailers and restaurants like to see a younger population. Younger people are more likely to spend their money on retail and restaurants,” said Farmer.
Farmer then focused in on how much actual money is being lost by Eagle Pass when it comes to spending out of town.
Under a retail leakage analysis study, Farmer stated that under 88 different sectors analyzed the study showed that a whopping $218 Million per year in opportunity retail sales are being lost by Eagle Pass retail businesses from Eagle Passans which shop out of town or other than Eagle Pass.
“The numbers are staggering on how much money is leaving. The way to look at it is not as a bad thing but as opportunity,” said Farmer.
Farmer stated that potential sales within the community are close to $ 855 Million.
Farmer added that a search had been done through the State Comptroller’s Office and that sales last year had been set at close to $637 Million for Eagle Pass.
“What that tells us is that there is $218 Million leaving Eagle Pass on a yearly basis,” added Farmer.
Farmer stated that even if 10% of that funding is captured by Eagle Pass, it would make a world of a difference in retail numbers and to be able to attract growth as well.
Farmer also discussed what his company has been doing with this information and how it is being used to attempt to lure businesses to consider setting up shop in Eagle Pass.
Farmer stated that during the analysis process it was determined that there is a great need for sit down casual restaurants like Red Lobster.
Farmer added that on a yearly basis there is at least $10.3 Million dollars in leakage loss due to the lack of sit down/full service casual restaurants not being set up in Eagle Pass. “That is a huge number,’ said Farmer.
Farmer said that another $8.7 Million is leaked out in retail sales from not having the fast casual type restaurants in place.
“Those are some of the sectors that really stood out the most,” said Farmer.
Farmer added that the Leakage Analysis study instrument is a very useful tool to lure those businesses into the community.
Farmer stated that the secondary retail consumer statistics are most important to lure in the national level retailers.
Farmer also stated that a psycho-graphic analysis had been performed to better ascertain a breakdown of the type of consumer that is visiting the various areas of the retail community in Eagle Pass.
The City Council agreed to meet with Farmer in the near future to continue moving forward with further planning and development of a detailed City of Eagle Pass Retail Recruitment Program.
