Virginia Retail Federation
“The Virginia Retail Federation is the advocacy arm of the Retail Alliance and the Retail Merchants Association. The Federation’s mission is to advocate on behalf of local and regional independent retailers, as well as franchise and national retailers through a network of locally focused representatives and chapters that access grass-root retail communities throughout Virginia.”
Here’s good news for Virginia retailers: The Retail Merchants Association (RMA) and Retail Alliance (RA) have created a joint legislative arm. The Virginia Retail Federation LLC (VRF) now serves retailers throughout Virginia.
Historically, the RMA has served Greater Richmond, and the Retail Alliance has served Greater Hampton Roads. The Virginia Retail Federation Geographically expands the coverage areas to serve all of Virginia’s retailers. Staff lobbyists and outside paid lobbyists are working collectively with political contributions and grassroots advocacy through the statewide VRF.
The Virginia Retail Federation (VRF) is different from other associations in important ways.
* The VRF efforts are focused on storefront, Internet, hospitality and service retailing;
* The VRF has four staff lobbyists with many years of Virginia General Assembly experience - they know and understand government, retail and retailers;
* The founding partners of the VRF were started in 1903 and 1906, providing over 100 years of historic track records of proven service to retailers.
* With its expanded footprint, the VRF offers retailers contract and staff executives spread throughout Virginia to work with businesses through chapter or council activities, one-on-one contacts, and grassroots involvement in the political process; and
* The VRF Web site offers, valuable, current industry and government relations information to help business prosper in challenging economic times.
“As organizations entrusted to represent the interests of hundreds of diverse merchants, it is apparent that creating a statewide legislative voice is the most effective and efficient approach,” said Susan L. Milhoan, president and CEO of the RA. “By collaborating in the creation of the VRF, we now represent the largest assemblage of retailers in Virginia.”
“The reason the RMA and the RA have been so successful over the last 100-plus years is their flexibility -their continual ability to change as retailing changes,” said William Baxter, the RMA’s president and chief executive officer. “We range from small, independent and franchise retailers to large regional and national big-box retailers. However, our association’s primarily focus is on Virginia-owned, Virginia-operated, and Virginia-staffed retail businesses.” This allows the organizations to speak with a high level of confidence and expertise about how a particular piece of legislation is going to affect retail.
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