AHOSKIE – “Matchmaker” – that’s what Ahoskie officials are hoping that a retail recruitment firm is able to offer the town.

At 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10, representatives of the Buxton Company will be at the Ahoskie Town Hall for a public meeting with town officials where a proposal will outline the scope of fact-based information that can be used by the town to proceed with attracting and expanding its retail business sector.

Buxton’s Community ID Division has developed a program specifically designed to help smaller towns, economic development organizations and chambers of commerce identify and recruit retailers.

In the case of Wednesday’s meeting, Ahoskie officials will partner with the Ahoskie Chamber of Commerce and Hertford County Economic Development.

Additionally, Buxton is able to fine tune its services by using their Small City ID program. Using a variety of parameters, that effort identifies those retailers that have existing locations in communities comparable in size to the client’s community. Once similar markets are identified, the Small City ID program identifies those retailers with the greatest market presence. The client, Ahoskie in this particular case, can then utilize those results to create and establish a recruiting program to attract the identified retailers.

Buxton’s “matchmaking” program provides potential retailers with the factual data and market information on existing locations in their efforts to expand.