In rural America's heartland, communities face a critical challenge, how to attract and grow retail businesses essential for economic vitality. My idea of recruitment was picking up a phone and saying, hey, I have a community in West Tennessee that would love to have you here, and that didn't really go well. They live there. They care about that community. How can they partner or collaborate with another organization to make a difference for their children and their grandchildren? We're a sales tax state and can use that to fund everything from schools to road improvements to water and sewer projects and everything that they need to do. Retail recruitment is a part of an economic development strategy for a community. It is something that all communities need to focus on and be intentional about. Rural communities have very tight budgets. They don't have a lot of sales tax because they don't have the retail base to support those. So the grant dollars are able to to be infused inside a community to allow them to do some things that hopefully will spur growth both from a retail standpoint but also industrial standpoint. And as time goes, it's building momentum. It's really important for communities to understand not just the real estate processes but who they're courting. You can wait and likely if you're growing, some retail establishment will come to your community, they'll find you, but you're gonna be much more successful. You're gonna get it a couple of years earlier. You're gonna get more retail if you go out and do the recruitment. This is where the right expertise becomes essential. Rural communities need a partner who brings knowledge, relationships, and proven methods without straining local resources. Partnering with you at Retail Strategies because you have the knowledge and you have the relationship with the retailers, and so it takes both of us working together. Over the last nine years or so, we've been able to help a hundred communities with their retail recruitment strategy, provide them the data that they need, provide them with follow-up to make sure they're able to implement what they learn. Retail Strategies does an amazing job. The relationship is very important to us. Dyersburg can be one of our success stories. They have this beautiful shopping center. Ripley has seen a lot of success in retail. They've recruited several different businesses to their communities, and Rubley's a pretty small town. We had been trying and trying to recruit Burger King for a couple of years, but it took that relationship of us knowing our community, getting our demographics together, presenting them to you, and you making that contact, and it was a win win situation. I feel like we've had a great relationship with Retail Strategies over the years. Hopefully, we've provided consistency at the at the local level, and certainly Retail Strategies has done that from from the provider's level. I just wanna say thank you to Retail Strategies because it's more than just a recruitment package on retail. It's the hope that you all bring to the rural market, and it's the relationship that we have to work together to grow. Retail Strategies, your partner in national retail recruitment, small business support, and downtown revitalization. Together, we're building stronger communities with the expertise that makes a difference.