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It's one of the most highly competitive fields you may have never heard about, retail recruitment for cities.

Hello, I'm Tom Britt.

On this edition of Tennessee is Talking, the topic is getting retail chains and companies to locate to our cities.

How does it happen and what are local cities doing?

Let's begin the conversation.

That's so cool.

Then that's when I said that-- The problem with that idea is-- Wow, that was amazing.

Then I came up with a solution.

[music] What was that about?

Here's what I think about it.

[background conversation] Now we're talking.

West Tennessee PBS presents Tennessee is Talking.

Let the conversation begin.

Thanks for joining the discussion here on Tennessee is Talking.

I'm Tom Britt.

Recruiting retail business is highly competitive and very time-consuming, but needed to increase the city's tax revenue, improve quality of life, and grow jobs.

Joining us to talk about retail recruitment is the mayor of Paris, Kathy Ray.

Thanks for joining us mayor, here today.

Thank you so much, Mr. Britt.

It's an interesting subject, recruiting retail.

Tell me about that.

It's a little bit different.

We hear recruiting industry, but we rarely hear recruiting retail.

First of all, we are a unique downtown and city and we're historic.

We want different things.

We want different retail business to come in, and we try to attract those type of retailers.

Do you have strategies just for that, specifically for the retail recruitment?

Oh, we have strategies for everything.

We have our director of the economic development, Mr.

Rob Goad.

We have Jennifer Morris, who is our director of community development.

We have a group of folks, someone from the city, someone from the county, someone from the chamber- Working as a team.

working as a team to meet with whoever's coming in, and whomever that is will determine who's on that team, of course.

For the retail, those are the main folks that come in, they look at our real estate.

They look at our community.

They look at our streets.

They look at our downtown.

The downtown area -is such a quaint downtown.

-It is.

We're there.

-I've enjoyed it.

-It's very unique.

It's historic.

It was built in the 1800s and people literally drive through there and say, "I want to live here."

Yes, or just stop and look around.

Yes.

We have had retailers that say, "I'm moving a store here.

Who do I talk to?"

That is so rewarding.

As I like to say, with all of our teams that go out, we're five, we're the fingers on a hand because we all work very well together and we all have the same goal in mind, what's best for our community.

I say that because what's best for our community might not be someone that wants to come, but we'll leave it open to everyone.

When a new recruit comes in, say a retail recruit, and they look at-- What is their first impression?

What do they say about it?

Just sight unseen, because people do come in that have never seen their city.

When they come in, they usually come into city hall, which you have to go straight through the middle of downtown to get to city hall.

We're on the west side of the downtown area, so any direction you're coming from you 're probably going to go right through downtown.

I will tell you that the first thing they say is, "Wow, what a downtown," because you just don't see.

Our city is clean.

Our sidewalks are kept clean.

We have hanging ferns from all of the corners of the square.

We have flowers and big concrete planters.

We maintain them all year.

I mean, we have a look.

We have a look that people like.

I think what you're saying is first impressions are extremely important, right?

Absolutely.

You drive in our-- It's like buying a new house, right?

[chuckles] Exactly, it is because if you drove into a town and everywhere you look there was garbage on the streets, and things like that, that's not where you want to go.

Our town is very clean.

We work very hard at that.

We have Phillip Jessie over our Public Works.

He's in alleys making sure that everything is clean.

Picked up and taken care of.

There's a Facebook page called Paris Tennessee Wants Aldi, where people are posting videos and comments about how much they want -that supermarket chain.

-Isn't that exciting?

-It is.

-That's different-- People speak out, right?

How many times have you seen that?

That's just one more.. We get together and we say, "Hey, do you want to do this?

Do you want them to come?"

We need to let them know.

Have you contacted Aldi?

-Oh, yes.

-Any response or [?]?

Yes.

All very positive.

Right.

I know there's one in Jackson that I've shopped, and I quite enjoy them.

I can quite understand why people would want one of those to come.

Absolutely.

We have a lot of folks that want them, as you know.

Can people help you in that regard by doing anything?

Should they join the Facebook page?

Oh, absolutely join the Facebook page.

Tell them you're going to shop there.

I mean, that's what they look for.

They already know there's an interest.

We all know the power of social media.

How does social media impact recruitment, I guess, of any type for a city?

Most of the recruitment is not well known.

People come into town, and they really don't want everyone to know that they're there.

They like to come in and look around.

Sometimes we will meet with folks and they'll say, "We'll be back another time," and they do.

They come back .. when we won't know they're there.

That's great because it's not going to be any different.

We're a very a welcoming community.

Another thing that a lot of people say, you walk into a store, you walk into just about any business in our community and you're going to be welcomed like you live there.

Friendly folks, I think is what you're saying.

Very friendly, yes.

Very friendly.

The importance of recruiting retail business, I know-- I grew up during a time in Jackson, around Jackson.

I grew up in the country actually, but would go to town and there were just all kinds of stores downtown, and that thing.

Then everything went a.. and the shopping centers, but there seems to be a return of retail to downtown areas.

Again, I think people want to be able to get out and walk the stores, walk from one different store to another different store.

I think that's what they're looking for, be able to go somewhere and sit down and eat here, and then walk next door, and buy jewelry or buy something special.

-Listen to music, or something- -Listen to music, yes,.. just to relax and enjoy downtown.

Much like a job interview, you always want to put a best foot forward.

Tell us about some of Paris's best attributes when you talk up recruiting businesses.

Our number one attraction, of course, is an Eiffel Tower.

You can't be Paris without a 70-foot Eiffel Tower, so we have to have that.

It's lighted.

It has sound.

-Oh, yes.

-It's high-tech, isn't it?

It is.

It really is.

We have our parks and recreation because it's in Eiffel Tower Park.

Tony Lawrence is the director.

You just call him and he will set it up for your Valentine special moment.

We have people who get married there, people who propose there.

Concerts there, music-- We have concerts, yes.

In the summer we have concerts every Tuesday.

We have concerts throughout the year but we have a series in the summer.

There's a lot of things to do.

I know that-- Then if you want to go do the water thing, you can go do the water thing on-- Absolutely.

Our tourism is our number one asset in everything.

Tourism brings so many different people to our community, and that is from downtown to the lake and back.

Retail is important to getting those folks not just driving through, but stopping and staying for a little bit.

We like to say, "Come for a day,.. Come for a week, experience Paris."

Experience Paris is our slogan, and that's just something that we all live by in our community too.

Retail does draw people in.

When you do that, tell us about the size of Paris and how that can perhaps help or perhaps hinder your recruitment abilities.

No, our livelihood is sales tax.

Every small town, the livelihood is sales tax.

We want people to come and spend money and visit with us.

Our town is 10,000.

Our community, county and town together is 32,000 people.

We have a great group of people in government, whether it's county or city.

We all are focused on the same thing and that is to bring in the right retailers, and we want the retailers to be successful.

We don't want to bring someone in that we don't t.. would be successful in our community.

That's terrible.

We go all out to make sure that they're choosing us for the right reasons and we're choosing them also.

I was thinking about it because I've been through Paris, in downtown Paris, and going to the river and that sort of thing.

Any idea how many people come through your city on a daily basis?

I know there's probably numbers for th.. -Well, I'm sure there is- -We didn't prepare.

The statistics off the top of your head.

because we're a member of the Retail Association, a founding member actually, and so that was provided to us through MTAS, which is University of Tennessee program.

With the use of your cell phone, we know who's coming in, where they're shopping, how much money they're spending.

That's scary.

I didn't say AI.

I said data strictly off of cell phones.

How long they're staying?

Did they stay for a day?

Were they here for the weekend?

Were they here for the week?

Are they on vacation?

We get a lot of really good intelligence information.

I think too.

If people come, they're going to shop, they're going to eat, they're going to buy gasoline, they're going to stay the night perhaps if they're tired.

They're not going to have time to do everything that day.

What I'm saying is, is the dollar is going to turn over more than once, isn't it?

Absolutely.

Yes, sir.

It does.

That's important, isn't it?

Very important.

We have a lot to do.

Other than retail, what about some of your industrial base there in the city or around the area?

We have wonderful industry in our community from breaks, to automobile parts, to companies that make furniture for schools.

We have a really good variety of industry.

We're very blessed to have the industry too.

Yes, for sure.

Got to have places for people to work, right?

Absolutely.

It makes people want to stay when they have a job.

Right.

The national well-known chains tend to get the headlines when they come to a city, but also working on recruiting smaller businesses.

We always think about numbers, but small businesses are the backbone, aren't they?

They absolutely are.

These are the people who come and stay.

They're not going away.

They're going to stay.

They're going to make it.

It's going to be great for them.

It's going to be great for our community.

If someone asked you, I'm coming to your city to spend a little time, maybe a day, maybe stay the night, what would you tell them to do?

Well, I would tell them, don't forget the Eiffel Tower.

Go have a picture made.

We have a spot that is just for- where you can stand and shoot up, and it looks just like -you're standing under the real-- -Real Eiffel Tower.

It's a big Eiffel Tower from that viewpoint.

In our downtown area, in our alleys, we have what we call Back Alley Paris, which is 30 murals in our downtown area- -30?

-in the alleys that all tell the story of our history, of our community, which-- Which is always panoramic and always draws people to stop and look.

It does, and each one has a little plaque.

This summer we're working on QR codes, so you'll be able to read them that way.

Then we have 25 catfish statues.

Now, if you can go through our community and find all 25, take your picture with them, just to-- People do it all the time.

It's a fun thing.

The art that is in our community is a very attractive thing to go visit.

I'm just talking about in town.

Of course, we have a lot of parks.

We have the largest non-commercial splash pad in the State of Tennessee in our park.

-Oh, my goodness.

-It's beautiful.

-I didn't know that.

-Yes, it's beautiful.

We have eight pickleball courts.

Courts, which has just exploded, hasn't it?

It is crazy, but this is what people want to do.

If there's things you want to do, then-- Then, of course, when you move to the lake area, there's boating, there's skiing, there's anything you want to do, that you can rent whatever you need to have a big day.

I was thinking of that little well-known candy place there to spend your- it seems like all my life.

-Sally Lane's Candy.

-Yes.

[laughs] It's not on the highway -to the lake anymore.

-Anymore, yes.

-It's on Mineral Wells.

-Mineral Wells.

-You go over there.

-Yes.

They still have this-- -Lori Nolen is the owner, and she-- -Yes, I know Lori.

Yes.

I was going to say that.

I bet you do know Lori.

-Yes.

-Go visit her.

Always wanted to stop if I had time to get some candy there.

Oh, the pink and green mints are, of course, the main one, but, oh, there's all kinds of fudge, and any kind of candy you want.

All right.

Let's talk about one of your biggest tourist draws.

It comes up in the spring, and then, all of a sudden everybody's eating, they're laughing and having a good time.

Tell us about what that thing is as if they don't know .. Paris is the home of the world's biggest fish fry, catfish, 12 tons of catfish.

-I was about to ask that.

-I knew you were going to ask me.

How many tons or pounds do you cook each year?

It is just crazy.

First of all, the festival is the last week in April.

Every year, right?

The last full week in April, every year.

We've just celebrated our 71st Fish Fry, world's biggest Fish Fry.

It's been around a year or two.

It is certainly a very big deal.

We have everything from rodeo during that time to cars, to- Music, of course.

music.

Our community is filled with music and the best musicia.. You don't have to go to Nashville.

You just come to Paris.

You'll hear the best musicians anywhere.

Of course, they always have carnival and all the food like that.

If you wanted it down at the-- It's all at the fairgrounds, isn't it still?

Right.

It's at the fairgrounds.

There's a whole week of activities that's going on, right?

-There's pageants and everything.

-It starts with a street dance downtown, big bands, the street dance.

They close the streets.

It's all over the community, but the main thing from Wednesday on is at the fairgrounds.

Then the big parade.

Tell us about parade day and how that is for the city.

I know it's a busy time, but it's a fun time.

It's a day out of school.

It's a day off of work.

World's biggest Fish Fry comes to town and everybody goes.

I think that's wonderful.

We couldn't do it without the bands and the schools that have bands and-- You can't have a parade without a band.

-No.

-[chuckles] Then we have all of the pageantry from all the beauty pageants around the community and the surrounding communities.

We have drawn as many as 100,000 to the parade.

You took my next question.

I was going to say, how many people show up and congregate for that parade?

It's quite the parade route there, isn't it?

People come on Friday and go home on Sunday.

It's a great place to visit in April.

You don't even have to recruit them.

They just show up, don't they?

No.

Yes, they do.

April in Paris.

They leave full and little bit heavier from all that fish?

Yes.

The fish is all you can eat fish.

Do you have the same people cooking every year or does the club take that on or who ought to do it?

No, they're the same people.

Consistency is important.

-It is always good.

-On food, yes.

Now, we have organizations that prepare the coleslaw, for example, would be one organization that does it every year.

There's three kinds of coleslaw.

There's mayonnaise, there's vinegar, and then there's a vinegar that has a little jalapeño in it.

Then we have another organization that makes the best hush puppies ever.

Can't have catfish without hush puppies.

No.

There's two kinds of hush puppies, because everybody seems to like the jalapeños in there.

Little zing in there.

Yes, or then we'll have just the real good ones.

Some people who don't even like fish, they'll just come and eat the hush puppies, right?

Yes.

Absolutely.

You come in and you eat all you want of all you want, whatever it is.

Tell us about the family atmosphere surrounding that event.

Well, it's a family, all right.

We actually have folks who have served and been a part of that event from children to grandchildren, to their grandparents who were a part of it.

It becomes a family event because they've .. and they've always been a part of it, cooking fish.

Good friend of mine now his father cooked for years and years and years, and now he's been cooking, all the secrets passed down.

Yes.

Do you have any idea who said, "Let's have a Fish Fry in Paris?"

I really don't.

I know it started with the chamber of commerce, of course.

I've often wonder that.

Years ago we had Mule day where everybody brought their mules to town.

In the early '50s, that was something that they didn't do anymore, and then the Chamber said, "Well, we need to do something else.

The first fish fry didn't make it too well.

They didn't quite grasp what they needed to be doing, but I think the next year it started booming.

From there on, it's just been an awesome event.

It's happened so many times now it's almost automatic.

Everybody does this and this and this without being asked.

Now, I will have to say our JCs, they have created a well-oiled machine.

Everything operates just like they have set it up every year, and they are the ones in charge, but they contact the family groups and the organizations and all of the people who are going to be cooking.

They're the ones that get everybody on board and say, "Okay, let's get ready.

Here we go.

People literally come from everywhere, don't they too?

From everywhere.

One of my .. to do is take up tickets.

Why?

Because if you're serving, you're so busy serving and the line's moving, You are trying to keep it moving, right?

Yes, but when I'm taking up tickets and I'm watching the line, then what I'm doing is I'm talking.

Where are you from?

Imagine it, Mr. Britt, I'm talking.

-[chuckles] -Yes.

I'm asking everybody, where are you from?

There's lot of people from the north, as in Indiana, Illinois, that area.

Always Kentucky, some from Missouri, but then somebody will go, I'm from Las Vegas.

-How did you get here?

-How did you hear about it?

Yes, right.

Just some place off the wall on the other side.

It's always fun.

I love to ask those questions.

People go away, and it's a good time every year, and it's such an annual event.

I just think about it every year even if I don't come up.

I think about it even without hearing about it.

Good.

It's been around a while.

There you go.

That's for sure.

A good event t.. -to attract people.

-Yes.

Back to the business side that we were talking about.

What businesses perhaps might be on your top wish list that you would want to bring to Paris to become a part of the community and get involved and stay there for a long time?

Well, we're always looking for the retail businesses that would provide something that we don't have, like lines of clothing, for example, men's shops, or things that we don't have a lot of, things like that, as well as the unique food, the unique products they make.

We have a soap factory moving into downtown.

A soap factory and making their own soaps.

Making their own soaps and selling them in the store.

You can go in and see what they're doing and how they're doing it.

Something different, things that are different because that's what all our shops are.

I would imagine most people don't know how soap is made.

I imagine.

I'm going to learn myself.

[laughs] -I grew up in the country on a farm- -O.. and my grandmother made that lye soap.

Yes, my grandmother made soap, too.

That would take out anything, your skin, too, -if you rub it hard [laughs] -Your skin included.

Yes, exactly.

I would imagine that would be an interesting process for someone just to come and-- Kids don't learn that now.

It'll be interesting.

Yes.

Winery, do you have a winery?

We don't have a winery right now.

Paris Winery started there.

That's what I was thinking.

They did start in Paris, and they are now in other areas.

I see their products in stores.

They still have the Paris name there anyway.

Sum up if you were going to make a pitch to someone, both family and business, to come and live and work and play in Paris and Henry county.

What do you tell them if you were going to-- They would be looking for the quality of life that they will have in Paris, Tennessee.

We will be able to provide the quality of life at a low tax rate, as far as everything financial.

Affordable housing, the homes and the prices of the homes they'd be looking at.

For business purposes, you'll be looking at a group of people who love to shop.

We have people who understand shopping local, and we see it every month when we get our statistics on our sales tax numbers.

Our sales tax is up 7% over last year right now.

That means people are getting out a little bit.

The economy is good.

They're buying.

People are buying, so all of that.

These are some of the things that I think people would be interested in knowing.

We have a lot of amenities.

We have one of the best school systems in the State of Tennessee.

If they have children, that's something they're absolutely interested in.

We have beautiful parks.

We have games and recreation for their children.

We have wonderful church atmosphere throughout our community.

Everyone is represented in our community.

Those would be the things that I would think they would be interested in.

Have you had people who perhaps attended the Fish Fry and thought, "Man, I would just love to live here and stay here?"

Have you ever heard a stor.. We hear that story all the time, honestly.

Not because you said it, because we really do hear it all the time.

We recently had a canine training from about 13 states that came here.

I saw some video of that.

We had people that are moving here because of that.

Most of the time, those people do bring wives and husbands with them.

When they're not in the training with the dogs, they will go and visit and look around.

We have had music festivals with our Tennessee River Jam, -which is also an annual -[crosstalk] which I enjoyed.

music festival.

We've had people who come in, singers that live in Nashville, they'll come in and they'll tell me, "Kathy, I looked at property here," and I went, "Where?"

They were telling me about it, and I went, "Oh, that is great.

I hope it works out."

It happens all the time.

You're really not that far from Nashville if you have to go back there all the time.

No.

We're 140 miles from Nashville, 150 from Memphis.

It's a great place to live because you don't have to live in Nashville and Memphis.

As we noted earlier, not that far from the water recreation, if you want to do that.

Water all summer, fun time.

Fun time.

Mayor, thanks for coming by, and continue success with your efforts to get new retail and other businesses to the area there in your city.

Thank you so much.

We all work very hard at it, and it's paying off.

All of our hard work is paying off every day.

Thank you so much for having me.

All right.

Thanks for coming today, Mayor.

We've run out of time.

For this edition of Tennessee is Talking, we want to thank Mayor Ray from Paris for joining us.

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