Scottsboro, AL
Driving Growth: How a Long-Term Strategy Transformed Scottsboro’s Retail Market
In a testament to the power of strategic partnerships and long-term thinking, Scottsboro, Alabama has successfully attracted multiple major retail chains and restaurants through its four-year collaboration with Retail Strategies, fundamentally transforming the city’s commercial landscape.
Strategic Location Meets Strategic Partnership
“Scottsboro is a growing, thriving community with over 16,000 people,” explains Mayor Jim McCamy. “We’re focused on retail growth in addition to industrial growth. As the county seat, we’ve been very successful in large part due to Retail Strategies recruiting new retail to the city.”
The city’s physical location has proven to be a major asset in retail recruitment efforts. Positioned halfway between Huntsville and Chattanooga at the intersection of multiple highways, Scottsboro serves as a natural hub that draws customers from surrounding cities and counties, creating an attractive market for retailers.
The Long Game:
Why Patience Pays Off in Retail Development
When Scottsboro began its partnership with Retail Strategies in 2021, Mayor McCamy understood that meaningful retail development wouldn’t happen overnight. The mayor’s wisdom about timing has proven crucial to the partnership’s success.
“Cities need to rethink doing a one-year deal,” McCamy emphasizes. “Retail doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. It takes more than a year to develop relationships and start marketing a community effectively. I’ve been in office going on five years, it’s pretty obvious after the first year that it’s going to take time.”
This long-term approach has been instrumental in achieving significant wins that might have been impossible with shorter commitments.
Communication and Transparency Drive Results
A hallmark of the successful partnership has been the consistent, open communication between Retail Strategies and city leadership.
“Sometimes we’ll talk a couple of times a week, anything that has ever come up the communication is great,” notes McCamy. “If we have a question, it’s just a phone call. They communicate with me and a couple of the council members. In that respect it’s been outstanding.”
This transparency extends to honest assessments about market fit. “Retail Strategies has been up front with us that we’re not their target market from a demographic standpoint for certain retailers,” McCamy explains. “The communication was clear if it’s possible or not. We determine yes or no, and they handle the follow up with the company.”
Connecting the Dots: The Chick-fil-A Success Story
One of the partnership’s most notable successes illustrates how Retail Strategies’ expertise can turn years of frustration into success. Chick-fil-A had been interested in Scottsboro since 2012 but couldn’t find a suitable site after examining three different locations.
When a new lot became available, Mayor McCamy personally contacted the property owner and worked with Retail Strategies’ Drew Kaufmann to connect Chick-fil-A’s developer with the property owner, finally making the long-awaited restaurant a reality.
The Ripple Effect: Retail Growth Fueling Broader Vision
Mayor McCamy noted that industrial projects and new sites from businesses in Huntsville have selected Scottsboro because of the overall retail market.
The partnership has also provided valuable intelligence for community planning, helping the mayor respond to constituent requests with data-driven explanations about which retailers are viable for the market and which are actively being pursued.
A Model for Other Communities
Scottsboro’s success demonstrates that small and mid-sized communities can compete for quality retail development when they combine strategic location advantages with professional expertise and long-term commitment. The partnership approach allows smaller cities to access the relationships, market knowledge, and persistence required for successful retail recruitment in today’s competitive landscape.