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The Texas Retailers Association (TRA) has an interesting and long history. The year 2006 is the 80th anniversary of the creation of the Association’s first predecessor organization. In July of 1926, more than a hundred Texas merchants met at the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas, and created the United Merchants of Texas. Years later, the group changed its name to the Texas Retail Dry Goods Association. For several decades, more groups developed and specialized in many different types of retailing until the need arose for a single federation of retailers. Thus, the Council of Texas Retailers was created.
Then, the splintering began again. A controversy over supporting the passage of the sales tax in the late 1950s drove the Council apart. The Texas Retail Federation was born through the legal work of TRA’s long time General Counsel Jack Welch. Ralph Poling in Houston was the Federation’s first executive director. In 1967, the Federation was relocated to Austin and renamed the present Texas Retailers Association with Michael R. “Mickey” Moore its executive director. In 1984, the Texas Food Marketing Association (supermarkets) merged into the TRA and the Texas Federation of Drug Stores (chain drug industry) became a member of the TRA. Titles changed, issues changed, and faces changed. After 35 years and a most successful career representing retailers, Mickey retired. Chuck Courtney, CAE, became the association’s third president in 2001 and left the association in May 2007. Ronnie Volkening, is the current TRA President and CEO.
Also in 2001, the Texas Retailers Association created the Texas Retailers Education Foundation, a 501(c) 3 charitable organization. The Foundation was founded after retailers expressed concerns for a better trained workforce and the need to promote retailing as a career. Since 2001, the TREF has promoted retailing as a career path to high school and college students. The Foundation has awarded $870,000 to the TEXAS Grant program. Retailing was the first industry to step up and take part in a private sector initiative to fund college students through the TEXAS Grant program following a law passed in 2005.
In 2006, TRA took another giant leap forward with its merger with the Gulf Coast Retailers Association with their charitable Foundation and the Gulf Coast Food Council, a for-profit services corporation. The Houston organizations date back to the 1930s and were valuable partners with the TRA. With overlapping membership and the same goals and objectives the marriage of the two associations was only logical and has benefited the Texas retail industry. A Texas Retailers Association office is located in Houston and staffed by Joe Williams, Vice President Regulatory and Member Services. Joe also staffs the Texas Food Council, an important group of TRA that represents Texas supermarkets and grocery stores.
More than 1,500 companies and corporations, operating thousands of stores and employing more than 500,000 Texans in the retail industry, comprise the membership of the Texas Retailers Association. Membership ranges from the independent proprietor to the large multi-national corporation. Department stores, specialty shops, drugstores, grocery stores, discount stores, hardware stores, jewelry shops — all are members of the Texas Retailers Association.
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