- April 17, 2024
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Matchmaker, matchmaker: A government/retail matchmaker may have just have made Palm Coast a match — seven of them, actually — but whether any of the finds will turn into a catch remains to be seen.
Retail recruiting company Buxton, which contracted with the city in July 2015 to help the city attract retailers, released a list of seven possibilities at a City Council workshop April 26: Bed Bath and Beyond, Save-A-Lot, Buffalo Wings & Rings, Cato, Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar, Longhorn Steakhouse and BJ's Wholesale Club.
Buxton had initially reached out to 23 retailers that the company's databases and algorithms indicated might be a good match for the city (and released a list of 20 in September), but 16 didn't respond. These seven did, and Buxton is still trying to woo them, Buxton Senior Account Executive Matthew Tate told City Council members.
Whether a match works out or not is in the details, Tate told council members. "It can be very specific," he said. "Once we find out who’s living here, and kind of your unique thumbprint, then we want to put on the lens of the retailer."
Some retailers want to know how many people in a community hold boating licenses, or how many are college students. Many want to know the driving time from the nearest interstate to possible site locations, or the average drive time from their potential customers.
Fast food and gym locations tend to want a 15-minute drive time or less, sporting goods stores can handle 20 minutes, and hardware stores 20 to 25 minutes, Tate said.
"We know traffic counts around every Pizza Hut in the United States," he said. "We know distance to interstates, preferred distance to interstates."
Buxton gets customer data and sales data from all of its 425 active retail clients, Tate said, and uses that information to make matches. "We’re not only matching to those Buxton clients," he said. "We’re able to apply that methodology we’ve learned over 20 years to those non-Buxton-partners as well."
Tate's presentation at the meeting was the second Buxton update before the City Council since the council voted to contract with the company, but city staff members get updates every week or two.
"I'd say the Buxton partnership has really changed our mindset to looking at retail in a different way," City Administration Coordinator Beau Falgout said. "How we’re dealing … with retailers, I think, is a lot more positive."
There were some revelations from the partnership: Most retailers seem to want "360 residential" surrounding them, Falgout said, so locations on Palm Coast Parkway are hotter than those on State Road 100. And, he said, "Their timelines really matter. When they spend the capital, they want that return very quickly. ... They want the store up quick, and they want to see a return."
City Manager Jim Landon said that just because things don't work out with a retailer one year doesn't mean they won't the next.
"Just because you get a ‘not interested’ today, doesn’t mean you give up on them," he said. "You have to develop long-term relationships."
