Philadelphia, Miss., home of the Neshoba County Fair, is looking to expand their retail by partnering with The Retail Coach, the nation’s leading retail recruitment firm. The epicenter of Neshoba County’s retail, Philadelphia has a rich Choctaw heritage and annually hosts the Choctaw Indian Fair, including the World Series of Stickball. The Retail Coach, founded in 2000 in Tupelo, Miss., has experience leading municipalities in over 400 communities in 29 states in retail strategy and proactive recruitment projects.
The Retail Coach’s goal will be to work closely with the city’s Community Development Partnership to target and recruit appropriate retailers and developers to Philadelphia. The first phase of the project will focus on the Highway 15/Highway 16 corridor stretching from Walmart Supercenter to the new Marshall Ford dealership on Highway 16. The first step in this process is to determine the city’s retail trade area, which is the defined boundary from which Philadelphia draws 80-85% of the city’s primary consumers. Using that information, the team will create retail profile reports and marketing tools to prepare the team and the City to proactively represent Philadelphia nationally to retailers, restaurants, and developers. To determine which dominant retail categories consumers are leaving the city of Philadelphia to purchase, the team will conduct a gap/opportunity analysis which is essential in determining which types of retailers to target.
The Retail Coach’s team will be led by Scott Emison, Director-Retail Strategy, and Project Manager Maddin McCord Hutto. “Philadelphia has an incredibly rich heritage, complete with a historic downtown and the tourism appeal of the Mississippi Choctaw Reservation. Our team looks forward to working with Philadelphia’s leadership on this focused strategy to strengthen this one major corridor on the southwest corner of town, enhancing its retail and restaurant selection, and improving sales tax dollars generated for the city,” said Emison.
“We are looking forward to working with The Retail Coach team to further grow our retail base in Philadelphia, Choctaw, and Neshoba County. The goal will be to bring in retail that is not available at this time in the Philadelphia area. The growth of jobs and the sales tax base can further enhance our area,” said David Vowell, President of the Community Development Partnership in Philadelphia.
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