Wichita Falls loses $300 million a year to residents who go to other cities to shop.

“That’s where people are making conscious decisions to leave this community and go buy stuff,” Chamber of Commerce CEO Ron Kitchens said Wednesday at the chamber’s State of the Economy forum.

The chamber has placed an emphasis on developing and improving retail business in the city.

“We have to go hunt for and recruit retail with the same energy, the same data-driven approach, the same passion that we go after manufacturing, that we go after warehouses, that we go after data centers,” Kitchens said.

The chamber has hired the consulting firm Retail Strategies, based in Fort Worth and Birmingham, Alabama, to help.

The company’s president, Lacy Beasley, spoke to a full house at the forum, urging attendees to shop locally.

“I know it’s easy on Saturday to load up and go to the Metroplex. If you can do it here, I would do it. If you can buy it locally, that needs to happen,” she said. “Retail is so critical to building a human infrastructure, getting the people to Wichita Falls, and it helps to sustain your long-term economy.”

Beasley said Wichita Falls has a population growth rate of about 1.5 percent.

“We want to get that growth rate up,” she said.

Beasley said the percentage of retail business going to online sales here is about 15 percent and predicted it would never go above 25 percent, which presents opportunity.

“Retailers know that. They’re still very, very committed to brick-and-mortar retail. They’re committed to that experience you have as a consumer,” she said.

Both she and Kitchens said they are frequently asked if a Dillard’s department store might return to the city. Dillard’s, one of the city’s more upscale retailers, left Sikes Senter and Wichita Falls in 2022.

“Dillard’s is not expanding. They’re not building new locations," Beasley said. “They’re trying to divest a lot of their real estate right now.”

She blamed a decline in department stores such as Dillard’s on the changing habits of consumers.

“We killed department stores. We quit shopping there,” she said.

On the broader economic landscape, Kitchens said jobs is the key.

“Nothing happens until we have more and better jobs in the community,” he said.

But he said people no longer choose a community just because they can find a job there.

“Everybody has jobs. They’re making decisions to pick a place, and then they worry about getting a job,” he said.

The forum included a panel of local people involved in different aspects of the community. They offered opinions on the opportunities and challenges facing their professions.

Speakers were Richard Bundy of BYSP Architects, Maggie Lengsfield Brumley of Bishop Realtor Group, Jon Dearolf with the YMCA and Assistant City Manager Paul Menzies.