In March 2022 the City of Aiken entered into a $125,000 partnership with Alabama-based consulting firm Retail Strategies, with a goal of recruiting more regional and national retail brands to Aiken—including dollar and mattress stores. The company was retained despite the fact that its recruitment portfolio was dominated by companies already present in Aiken, and more national and regional brand retailers were already moving into the city, especially along the Whiskey Road and Silver Bluff Road corridors. If successful, the contract with Retail Strategies will help to continue to make Aiken a more generic community.
by Don Moniak
July 29, 2024
Does the City of Aiken need help in attracting national and regional chain retailers and restaurants? The answer, according to city officials, is yes.
On March 3, 2022, the City of Aiken’s Economic Development Department inked a three-year, $125,000 contract with Retail Strategies to develop and execute a national and regional brand retail recruitment plan on behalf of the city. The contract was signed in lieu of any competitive procurement process or approval by City Council (1).
Two months after the signing of the contract, Retail Strategies issued a news release announcing a partnership with Aiken that originated in Las Vegas:
“After conversations at ICSC Las Vegas, the nation’s largest retail real estate trade show, Aiken city leaders wanted the Retail Strategies team to represent their city to the retail community.”
The Retail Strategies news release utilized a photo of The Brew Pub, a popular, locally-owned restaurant and brewery that closed in early 2023–even though the Retail Strategies business model does not involve assisting small, locally-owned businesses whose profits generally remain in, and are reinvested in, the community. Instead, the company helps recruit National competitors whose profits are more prone to leaving the area, sometimes to the benefit of private equity firms (2), and sometimes to the detriment of locally-owned small businesses.
Who is Retail Strategies and what is their mission in Aiken?
Retail Strategies touts itself as, “The national expert in recruiting businesses and strategically developing communities.”
The company’s mission in Aiken was to help the City “understand and identify their redevelopment and retail recruitment goals,” and develop a “tailored retail recruitment plan based on in-depth market analysis, consumer analysis and real estate assessment and proactive retail and broker outreach program.”
Who does Retail Strategies recruit? On its “Success Stories” page, the company touts its accomplishments in five Southeastern localities: Newberry, SC; High Point, NC; Union County, SC; Albemarle, NC; and Jasper, Alabama.
Of the five, Union County, Albemarle, and Jasper are in economically stressed areas with considerably higher poverty rates and unemployment and lower income levels, and generally lacking the national chains that are already present in more affluent cities and counties like Aiken.
The cumulative list of recruits to the five localities sounds like a Who’s Who of existing national and regional chains in Aiken (Table 1).
| Retailer | Presence in Aiken |
| ALDI | Whiskey Road |
| Badcock Furniture | West Richland Ave. |
| Big Lots | Silver Bluff (closing) |
| Verizon | Southside (1) Northside (1) |
| Chick-fil-A | Whiskey Road |
| Dunkin Donuts | Whiskey Road, West Richland |
| Firehouse Subs | West Richland |
| Five Below* | Whiskey Road |
| Harbor Freight | Whiskey Road |
| Hobby Lobby | Whiskey Road |
| Huddle House** | Closed all locations |
| Mighty Dollar | Not present |
| Petco | Silver Bluff |
| Planet Fitness | Whiskey Road |
| Rose’s Express | West Richland |
| Ollie’s Bargain Outlet | West Richland |
| Farmer’s Home Furniture | Silver Bluff Road |
| Jersey Mike’s | Whiskey Road |
| Kay Jeweler’s | Silver Bluff Road |
| Mattress Firm | Whiskey Road (2) |
| Papa John’s | University Parkway |
| PetCo | Silver Bluff Road |
| Petsmart | Whiskey Road |
| Planet Fitness | Whiskey Road |
| Popeye’s | York Street |
| Publix | Whiskey Road (Silver Bluff-planned) |
| O’Reilly Auto Parts | Downtown Richland Avenue |
| Rose’s | West Richland Avenue |
| Starbucks | Whiskey Road, USCA |
| Supercuts | Whiskey Road |
| T-Mobile | Whiskey Road |
| Taco Bell | Whiskey Road, West Richland |
| TJ Maxx | Silver Bluff Road |
| Verizon | Whiskey Road, West Richland |
| Waffle House | West Richland, Whiskey Road, York Street |
| Wendy’s | West Richland, Whiskey Road |
There are companies on the Retail Strategies success list that are not in the Aiken Market, including the $1.25-per-item discount chain Mighty Dollar; restaurant chains Dickey’s BBQ, East Coast Wings and Grille, Freddy’s Frozen Custards, Texas Roadhouse, Wingstop, and Highway 55 Burgers; retail clothing stores Burke’s Outlet and Shoe Carnival; and Take 5 Oil Change.
The Aiken Results to Date
On March 25, 2024, Retail Strategies provided an update at a City Council work session on its efforts and the status of potential national and regional brands; summarized in a lightly redacted chart titled “Active Recruitment Prospects (Figure 1).
The list reads more like a monitoring effort than an update on recruitment. The actual connection between Retail Strategies and companies already seeking a presence in Aiken appeared tenuous; company reps provided City Council with no success stories similar to those in other regional markets.
This is to be expected when Whiskey Road, Silver Bluff Road, and West Richland Avenue already have high occupancy rates of national and regional retailers. And, in fact, the contract technically only mandates the company make contacts with 30 retailers, not actively recruitment 30 retailers.
In regard to the redacted company names and road locations, the consultant explained that the rationale of the redactions was to avoid revealing company names and potential locations, which in turn could provoke speculation in local real estate. But in a small town like Aiken with only several commercial districts, the redactions seem superfluous.
Among the redactions are:
- Two “National Grocers” projects that are already in progress. It was common knowledge at the time that Lowe’s was establishing its presence at Powderhouse and Whiskey Roads—and has since opened its first store in the area. The second grocer is Publix, which was in the pre-construction phase of a second South Aiken location adjacent to the Village at Woodside along Silver Bluff Road—commonly known information that Retail Strategies chose to unnecessarily redact. Neither development has any identifiable connection with the Retail Strategies contract.
- A regional convenience store (C-Store) chain seeking four locations in the market. Parker’s Kitchen is commonly known to be that C-Store. It has opened one location along West Richland Avenue that was approved in May 2022; is developing a second on East Pine Log Road, and sought to build one on “the Southern end of Whiskey Road,” another commonly known fact that Retail Strategies chose to redact. Again, there is no indication that Retail Strategies recruited Parker’s Kitchen.
- The business that was reluctant about being “away from the center of synergy” clearly had the Whiskey Road and/or Silver Bluff Road corridors in mind.
- The “Aiken Development Project” now appears to be Rutland Place, which is described as a “mixed use” development across from Aiken High School, and was recently approved by Aiken City Council.
One primary recruitment contractual focus area identified by Retail Strategies is a “grocery-anchored shopping center,” ostensibly on the northeast side of town where residents have experienced a decrease in grocery options in this century. But no such prospect is listed as the company enters the last year of its contract.
Northside residents hopeful for a store to compete with KJ’s are often told that “retail follows rooftops,” a sentiment that was repeated by City officials at the March 25th meeting.
However, Retail Strategies presented a different viewpoint, that
“Retail builds on retail.” In a graphic titled “Retail Recruitment Ladder,” (Figure 2), the company presents 27 national firms; of which 21 are already in Aiken. Everyone of the 21 companies in Aiken has a store on the Southside; only four have a second store on the Northside.
In essence, the City pursued a six-figure consulting contract that, if successful, was more likely to lead to more congestion on Whiskey and Silver Bluff Roads.
In addition, subsidizing any recruitment of national or regional retailers has the potential to harm locally-owned small businesses. Putting a photo of the former Brew Pub on a news release touting the $125,000 (4). Retail Strategies contract does not change the latter dynamic of trading uniqueness for a more generic community flavor.
Footnotes:
(1) The City of Aiken did not actually “select” Retail Strategies in the traditional procurement sense. According to the City’s procurement website, there was no bidding process for national brand recruitment services. The lack of a procurement process, which is required for professional service contracts over $25,000, was confirmed in a response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
In the absence of a competitive procurement process, only City Council can approve contracts greater than $25,000; as it did with the City’s $250,000 contract with the Aiken Corporation for “predevelopment work” of the SRNL project.
In addition, City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh has declined to either confirm or deny whether the funding derived from the hospitality tax revenue budgeted for use by the City’s former Economic Development Department.
(2) Local National Brand businesses owned, now or in the recent past, by private equity firms include Petsmart and Petco.
(3) Retail Strategies success stories:
“Dickey’s BBQ ($605,000) has created 10 jobs; East Coast Wings and Grill ($1.5 million) has created 20 jobs; Farmer’s Furniture ($2.4 million) has created 5 jobs; Highway 55 Burgers, Shakes and Fries ($1 million) has created 20 jobs; Ollie’s Bargain Outlet ($4.33 million) has created 30 jobs; PetSmart ($5.022 million) has created 29 jobs; Chick-fil-A ($2.09 million) has created 36 jobs; Verizon ($3 million) has created 10 jobs; Rose’s Express ($3.5 million) has created 25 jobs; Harbor Freight ($3 million) has created 15 jobs; Planet Fitness ($550,000) has created 10 jobs.”
Union, SC:
Harbor Freight, Starbucks, Wendy’s
Newberry, SC
To date Starbucks, Firehouse Subs, Mighty Dollar, Papa John’s, Big Lots, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Harbor Freight Tools, Burke’s Outlet, Taco Bell, and Huddle House have all opened locations in the market.
High Point, NC
Publix, ALDI, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Jersey Mike’s, Kay Jewelers, Take 5 Oil Change, Wingstop, Texas Roadhouse, and more.
Jasper Alabama,
ALDI, Dunham’s Sports, Five Below, Harbor Freight Tools, Hobby Lobby, TJ Maxx, Huddle House, Dunkin’ Donuts, Freddy’s Frozen Custard, Mattress Firm, Petco, Planet Fitness, Shoe Carnival, Supercuts, Waffle House, Wendy’s, and Badcock Furniture
4. How much is $125,000?
On September 11, 2023, Aiken City Council debated whether to give fire engine operators a 4% or an 8% raise. The latter involved $64,000.