WINDHAM – A consulting company based in Dallas has signed a 16-month contract with the town of Windham to survey the depth and breadth of the commercial sector’s retail offerings, and to attract new retail operations to town.

The Retail Coach consulting firm will conduct an initial survey of the retail market in order to determine gaps in product lines and services. It will then market the town to its list of contacts in the restaurant and retail industry in an attempt to draw more retailers to town.

The Windham Town Council gave its unanimous approval of the retail analysis by approving a $38,500 contract last week. Councilors agreed the survey, last conducted in 1997, may attract new businesses or lead to the expansion of existing businesses, both of which could broaden the commercial tax base and create jobs.

Aaron Farmer, vice president of The Retail Coach, has contacts throughout America with large-scale retailers and restaurants. His job now is to bring some of them to Windham.

“We have contacts from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the north to the south,” he said, “and what we’re really going to be doing is put Windham in front of not just the New England-area developers and retailers but really nationwide retailers and restaurants.”

Drawing more national retailers is a focus of the town, but the survey, which will begin in mid-March, is also aimed at helping local retailers. Using one example, Windham Economic Development Director Tom Bartell said a local shoe store could benefit from the survey by learning what other brands or shoe-related products are offered in Windham and adjusting its product line or marketing pitch accordingly.

“If it shows we are selling fewer shoes, for example, than we should be, perhaps shoe sellers can use that information to better market to those people who could come to our stores but don’t,” Bartell said. “So it’s not only for new retail. It’s to help existing retailers. And that’s how we hope this will play itself out.”

The survey will also focus on demographics. It’ll explore who shops in Windham, how those shoppers feel about Windham and its offerings, and why some residents prefer shopping elsewhere, such as the Maine Mall.

Representatives from the consulting firm will make at least three visits in the next four months to conduct interviews with business owners, residents and community leaders. Public forums will be held. The company will also interview shoppers and sift through company data to find out what retailers already offer in Windham.

“To sell Windham, we have to know Windham,” Farmer said.

Once information is compiled, which usually takes about 120 days, Farmer said, it is made available to existing retailers. Farmer then acts a salesman for Windham with his national contacts and at trade shows like the ICSC RECon trade show in Las Vegas that attracts up to 30,000 real estate professionals.

Local business leaders are excited about the upcoming analysis of the retail sector.

Barbara Clark, executive director of the Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, said existing businesses have a lot to gain from the study.

“We’re very excited about it. It’s growing the business community and taking what we have and building it to what the community wants and will accept,” she said.

Dan Hancock, director of the chamber’s Retail Committee, which was formed two years ago to focus on marketing existing retailers, hopes The Retail Coach will not only focus on new businesses but also help existing ones as well.

“One of the biggest opportunities of this market study will be to identify strategies that will help us grow from within,” Hancock said. “I think that this analysis and resulting action plan really are the next steps in our efforts to make Windham one of the premier shopping areas in southern Maine.”

Hancock also said the survey will help retailers “have a better understanding about what draws consumers to Windham, which will allow us to build on the Buy Local advertising campaign that we began last year.”

Hancock said the push isn’t merely to attract national chains to Windham.

“I think the initial reaction from many is that this is an effort to bring in more big-box stores, and that is not necessarily the case,” he said. “This will help us to recruit smaller boutiques and mid-size retailers that will help us to create a village atmosphere where consumers may enjoy spending an afternoon. In this sense if fits very nicely with … an effort to add character to our town while helping to support local businesses.”

Bob Mills, owner of Mills & Co., a homegrown retailer of upscale kitchen goods based in North Windham, is supportive of the effort to catalog product offerings and market the town.

“I think it’s valuable that we know what our vacuums are and we fill them up,” Mills said.

Doing so, he said, will help Windham become even more of a destination where shoppers can find everything, similar to the shopping meccas of South Portland and Lewiston-Auburn.

“Generally speaking, you want to have a balanced selection of retailers for the simple reason that if you do, people will automatically think of North Windham as a place where they can get all of their shopping done,” Mills said. “And if their thought is, ‘Let’s go to Windham,’ then that’s going to be valuable for any (retailer) who sells anything that’s necessary or needed or wanted.”

Keith Adlard of Naples buys a twine dispenser for roasts and a gravy separator from cashier Janet Baker at Mills & Co. in North Windham on Monday. The two items will be among thousands listed in a new survey being conducted of Windham’s retail sector. The survey will disclose what items are sold in town in an effort to find gaps in product lines. (Staff photo by John Balentine)