Council hears the Retail Coach’s annual review presentation
By Nicholas House
Sun Correspondent
The City of Gallup is always working to boost the local economy and bring more businesses to Gallup.
The city council heard an annual review from The Retail Coach, a contracted firm hired to recruit new businesses, during their Jan. 6 meeting. The councilors pressed the company’s representative Kaleb Wilson on barriers to growth, downtown vacancies, and whether the city should keep paying for retail recruitment.
Wilson, a project manager for The Retail Coach, told councilors the firm has worked in more than 400 communities over 26 years and has partnered with Gallup since late 2023. He said the most recent amendment to the original contract ran through 2025 and concluded at the end of December.
He framed Gallup’s pitch to retailers around what he called the city’s “trade area,” or the population that regularly shops, dines, and seeks entertainment in town, rather than the city’s 22,000-person population. Using cell phone location data pulled from multiple Gallup sites, Wilson said the firm estimates Gallup regularly serves about 133,000 people, not including periodic spikes tied to events and travel from surrounding reservations.
In one statistic Wilson described as a reliable conversation starter with brands, he told councilors Gallup’s Walmart has long ranked among the top-performing locations nationally and currently, it sits at number four. Wilson said data tied to Gallup’s main ZIP code, 87301, suggests only 16.4% of regular customers at Walmart come from that ZIP code, a figure he said reflects how much of the store’s base comes from outside the city.
Wilson told councilors the firm’s work includes mapping available sites, building a targeted list of retailers not currently in Gallup, and using reports and marketing materials to recruit brands through calls, emails, and meetings at industry conferences. He said The Retail Coach represents communities at several trade shows each year, including events connected to International Council of Shopping Centers and “Retail Live!,” and tries to keep site information current through broker relationships as well as listings.
When asked what he sees as the biggest obstacle to landing more retail, Wilson pointed to workforce concerns.
He said that feedback has come “candidly” from some casual restaurants that have turned away from the market for now, though he told councilors the firm tries to address those concerns by pointing to local resources and partnerships.
Councilor Sierra Asamoa-Tutu, Dist. 2, said that assessment clashes with what they hear from residents who say they cannot find work, and argued that Gallup’s retail picture can be distorted by median household income figures.
She said the area’s cost structure and cash economy, including households without mortgages and other typical monthly expenses, can make spending power look lower on paper than it is in reality. Wilson agreed, saying those dynamics become clearer when retailers examine sales volumes in the region, and he said the firm is willing to promote additional data tied to the broader area.
Councilors also pressed Wilson on what, specifically, has resulted from the city’s partnership with the Retail Coach.
He recapped what he called early “wins” during the partnership, including AutoZone, which closed on its land in December 2022, and Wingstop, which he said was first contacted in October 2023 and opened in July 2024. The Retail Coach also worked with Anytime Fitness beginning in November 2023 and the location opened in 2024.
Wilson said Marshalls was already in motion before the firm’s involvement, but the company helped maintain contact with the brand’s real estate leadership as lease issues were worked out, and he said the store is now open and “doing well.”
Looking forward, Wilson told councilors the firm is tracking about nine active prospects tied to Gallup sites, including a nationally recognized restaurant chain with close to 1,000 locations that wants a location near Interstate 40 by the Rio West Mall, but needs a specific deal structure to move forward.
He also said the firm is in discussions with about four quick-service restaurant brands, including one that already has an existing location and is considering another. Wilson said one clothing and specialty retailer has already gotten a space in Gallup and is working through terms, though he did not give a timeline. He described several other retailers as interested but dependent on co-tenancy, the practice of placing certain brands near each other in the same shopping center.
Wilson said some categories remain in a “not right now” bucket.
He said one potential pet store is constrained by income metrics, and two beauty retailers have either market or co-tenancy concerns. On big-box possibilities, Wilson said Costco has been discussed repeatedly but that the firm does not expect it to be a fit for Gallup at this point based on the company’s required metrics.
Councilor Sarah Piano, Dist. 3, suggested Sam’s Club could be a more realistic target given Walmart’s performance and the number of shoppers coming from outside the city’s core ZIP code. Wilson responded that Sam’s Club development has been limited in recent years as the company focused on redeveloping existing properties, but he said new club construction has begun again and could open a path to revisit Gallup in the future.
The discussion also turned to downtown vacancies and what retail recruitment should look like beyond national chains.
City Manager Frank Chiapetti, Jr. asked what industries or attractions the firm is looking at for downtown, where the city has numerous empty buildings. Wilson said downtown work begins with placemaking recommendations, but should become more hands-on through in-person discussions and roundtables with existing business owners. He said the firm’s data tools can support local and regional businesses and are not intended “to push out the little guy,” but to complement what is already there.
Chiapetti also asked what incentives the city should offer to attract new businesses. After confirming Gallup has façade and signage assistance through Gallup MainStreet and the Business Improvement District limited to the downtown area, Wilson said the firm doesn’t lead pitches with incentive offers but could explore options such as property-related incentives or sales-based incentives, subject to New Mexico regulations, if a deal required it.
Near the end of the presentation, Gallup franchise owner James Rich criticized the concept of spending more public money to recruit competitors.
Identifying himself as a local franchisee of national brands, Rich said, “We’re struggling every single day and we’re struggling for share of the stomach,” arguing that recruiting more restaurants could “cannibalize everybody else’s sales.”
Rich said he is not in favor of adding “$25,000” to recruit competition and urged the city, if it pursues incentives, to consider programs that help existing businesses stay.
Wilson told councilors the biggest challenges often come down to relationships with landowners and expectations about property values, arguing that deals stall when owners don’t understand what the market will bear compared with other communities. He said the firm aims to be an extension of the city team and help bridge those gaps through ongoing conversations.
