The Dripping Springs area is growing quickly and, with it, its retail trade area.
Featured speaker Aaron Farmer had much to say on the subject at the Dripping Springs Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon on Wednesday, Feb. 23. Farmer, who is president of retail recruitment and development firm The Retail Coach, emphasized the importance of understanding a city’s retail trade area: who is coming to shop in Dripping Springs? A city’s RTA is established by cell phone data that pinpoints consumer home locations and determines their path-to-purchase.
“Forgetting about the city limits, you should be focusing on the retail trade area,” he explained. “Dripping Springs is pulling consumers from a little past Johnson City to the west, Cedar Valley to the east, Wimberley to the south and Cypress Mill to the north. That’s made us a market of 88,000 [people].”
While a healthy, growing RTA will sit at a compound annual growth rate between 1 and 2%, Dripping Springs’ RTA is exceeding that benchmark, currently sitting at a rate of 3.28%, according to Farmer. With an average household income in the RTA of $160,000, many retailers are starting to take notice.
“I go to trade shows, I go to conferences all over the country… A lot of retailers, a lot of restaurants, a lot of developers are talking about Dripping Springs,” Farmer said. “We’re going to see a lot of retail and restaurant growth. So, we’re talking with the city about how we can be smart with that growth moving forward.”
New chain retailers moving into the Dripping Springs area this year will include Freebirds World Burrito, P. Terry’s Burger Stand, Panda Express Chinese Kitchen, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and Mighty Fine Burgers, Shakes and Fries.
“We jumped forward 10 years (in consumer and business digital adoption) within the first 90 days,” he explained. “The increased popularity of drive-thus, curbside and pickup… that’s here to stay. There’s even potential for many stores to go curbside only.”
“Brand loyalty is becoming a thing of the past,” he continued. “With the pandemic and its supplychain shortages, consumers are having to buy whatever’s available.”
While many aspects of retail changed, the rise of online shopping will not be replacing in-person shopping anytime soon, Farmer said.
“Seventy-five percent of all retail sales happen in-store,” he explained. “Brick and mortar is not going away. That said, we are going to see a lot more click-and-collect sales.” Click-and-collect sales, where a customer purchases an item(s) online and picks it up in person, grew 106% since the start of the pandemic, according to Farmer.
While some in attendance expressed concerns that Dripping Springs was beginning to lose its small-town feel, Hays County Commissioner Walt Smith, Precinct 4, explained the need for a combination of both local businesses and larger chains.
“If you’re going to have a strong retail community, you need a mix,” he said. “The county really doesn’t have a say on what stores move here and where they locate, but [the county and the city] really try to vet a lot of those larger businesses on the front-end to make sure they are investing in the community instead of taking away from it.”
“Forgetting about the city limits, you should be focusing on the retail trade area.”
