SUMMERDALE - The Summerdale Town Council voted at its December meeting to begin paying Retail Strategies quarterly for its services. Retail Strategies specializes in recruitment strategies and markets clients during trade shows and to businesses. Summerdale signed a three-year contract with the company approximately two years ago. Per the contract, the town pays $35,000 per year to Retail Strategies.
“We told them we were going to cancel our contract,” said Mayor David Wilson during the December workshop. “There were promises of businesses between Highway 32 and Highway 59, and nothing has come to fruition, and finally we sent them the termination notice. Correct me if I’m wrong, but we were told in the first year we probably wouldn’t see anything while data was gathered, but we could look for at least seven to 10 businesses coming the second year, and then more the third.”
The council held a Zoom meeting with Retail Strategies prior to the December council meeting. The meeting brought up concerns about a lack of communication. Council member Norma Giles suggested paying one quarter at a time instead of paying for the entire year.
“The lack of communication has been an issue with them, with the council and the staff,” said Wilson. “ Retail Strategies will get all council members and staff that want it the login for a Basecamp, an information stream that will give us everything that the company is working with and the contacts to their developers.”
Wilson said moving forward, the town would have either monthly or quarterly Zoom meetings with Retail Strategies. The end goal is to bring new businesses into the town and to fill empty lots along the town’s business corridor.
“This contract with them is $35,000 per year, and we just wanted to make sure that we weren’t just frivolously throwing the money away,” Wilson said.