BY VICKI BROWN
At the recent Walterboro City Council meeting, City Councilor Jeff Molinari applied to the City Council for funding to invest in retail training with the Municipal Association of SC (MASC).
The training investment is $ 5,000. These costs include a professional market analysis of the participating community as well as the registration costs for a participant to attend the training event, which is taking place in Las Vegas.
“All we’re doing right now is file an application,” said Molinari. “If it is included in the program, one of our employees will likely attend and represent the city.
“A booth would be to promote and promote the city of Walterboro as a great place to do business,” he added.
The council will approve the funding request for the program if the city’s request is accepted.
“We have participated in this program for the past few years,” said Mayor Bill Young. “It’s a good program that our community could benefit from.”
MASC represents and services the state’s 271 registered parishes, including the city of Walterboro.
The association offers services, programs, and tools that provide local government officials with the knowledge and experience to run their communities most efficiently and effectively.
To help cities and towns with retail strategies, MASC is running a retail recruitment training course led by The Retail Coach, a national market research and development company.
The course consists of six training days, which take place from August to November in the association’s office in Colombia.
According to MASC, the training courses will cover the principles of retail recruitment, such as market conditions in a defined area and current trends in commercial development, as well as how retailers evaluate a market and identify growth opportunities.
In addition to the training, the participants receive a professional market analysis in which the critical economic characteristics of their community are presented.
Finally, participants learn to prepare for trade shows and to network effectively when they visit. You will have the opportunity to put all of the lessons into practice when you attend the International Council of Shopping Centers and RECon conference, December 5-7, a conference involving retailers, commercial real estate firms and contractors in Las Vegas.
The selected Walterboro trainee will represent the city with a stand and provide interested dealers with information on retailing.
