Chamber Forum recap: The state of OKC's retail industry

At November’s Chamber Forum, attendees learned more about the state of OKC's retail industry just before the holiday shopping season took off. Though we are all more aware of the retail sector in its busiest months, it’s an important part of our economy year-round.

“25% of all jobs in Oklahoma are retail oriented,” said Anthony Humphrey from Cox Business, one of the event sponsors. “Needless to say, today's conversation about retailing, especially as we start to emerge from the pandemic is important to us all.”

After Humphrey set the tone of the event, highlighting the prominence of retail in so many of our lives, the panel discussion took the stage. Panelists included Daniel McLoud, Owner of TRADE Supply Co.; Shane McWhorter, General Manager of Washington Prime Group; Jim Parrack, Senior Vice President of Price Edwards & Company; and Cleo Rajon, Executive Director of the Independent Shopkeepers Association. Each panelist brought their unique and honest perspective as they contributed to the dialogue.

Shortly before the event, the city released the most recent sales tax report from October 2021, which revealed that Oklahoma City collected about $24.8 million in sales taxes for the month. That's 12.8% of the city's projection and 17.3% above the same month last year. In fact, the city's most six most recent sales tax checks are the largest in city history, which reveals an encouraging trend for our retail sector.

Even though the pandemic created financial difficulties for almost every sector of business, it seems retail will continue to recover throughout 2022--possibly even making up for some of the loss experienced during the height of the pandemic.

“Americans have $2.3 trillion more money in cash than they did before the pandemic, and so they're spending that,” said Parrack. “It is helping drive a lot of the retail business right now.”

With more cash in hand, it’s important to consider the way dollars are spent and their impact. It’s easy to jump online and make purchases delivered straight to your door, but sometimes we forget how convenient it can be to shop local.

“Technically it is now just as easy, just as convenient, just as fast, if not even faster, to shop from a local shop online than it is Amazon or any other large online retailer,” said Rajon. “You can order something online from a local shop and pick it up on the same day with curbside pickup. In a way, the playing field has been leveled just a little bit.”

The pandemic accelerated local businesses’ approach to e-commerce, encouraging many to create a presence online. According to Rajon, in a recent retail study, 10% of the sales in local shops come from online orders.

Not only are levels of sales and efficiency important to the success of our local businesses, but the community surrounding them is equally important. “The best thing for ROI is not focusing on sales. It's focusing on our relationships,” said McCloud. “Our relationships are why we're still in business today. And it's also why we are having the success that we're having.”

Panelists explained the effects of the labor shortage and supply chain issues on business. Though shops are thriving sales-wise, with trouble finding employees, the situation becomes difficult in preventing burnout for staff members and shop owners. These challenges are putting pressure on retailers’ margins, which has led to price increases and inflation.

“We've got to figure out a way to get people back into the workforce,” said Parrack.

One of the residual outcomes of the pandemic was an exit from the workforce. Individuals are actively choosing unemployment, so businesses are having to find new ways to encourage people to seek work.

As our city and the global economy deals with these challenges, there is still a lot to look forward to when considering the future of retail. Placemaking is an important aspect of the retail industry, and Oklahoma City is positioned to continue to invest in it.

“We call it activations, same thing as placemaking, and the idea from our perspective is to create areas in a retail environment that people want to come and stay,” said McWhorter.

“At Classen Curve, we've renovated a whole four or five common areas between the stores. We're about to open an area next to Red Coyote,” he added. “It will have a big screen TV, outdoor ping pong tables, bocci ball, corn hole, and more. Before we started putting in these activation spaces, I was actually a little bit skeptical. But I couldn't have been more wrong, the areas have created a lot of traffic, a lot of positive buzz.”

The event concluded with panelists sharing what they look forward to for the future of retail. With new companies entering the market and large companies choosing to expand into Oklahoma City, we have a lot to look forward to.

Special thanks to presenting sponsor Cox business and Corporate Sponsor ADG.