Retail Industry Leaders Association


The Retail Industry Leaders Association is an American trade association headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. RILA promotes consumer choice and economic freedom through public policy and industry operational excellence. Executives participate in RILA for its educational forums, its public policy advocacy, and its advancement of the industry.

Focus and membership

RILA's board of directors has focused its efforts on seven definitive areas:
Members include retailers, product manufacturers and service suppliers. Together, RILA's members provide millions of jobs and operate more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers domestically and abroad. RILA represents:
RILA was started in 1969 as a research organization to help regional discounters network and learn from one another. Roughly 20 companies were founding members, all were regional discounters. Companies such as Kmart, Jamesway, Caldor, Bradlees, Hills, Target, Shopko, Wal-Mart, Zayre, Korvettes and Ames were among the founding members. The organization was originally named the Mass Retailing Institute. In 1986, it acquired the Association of General Merchandise Chains and in 1988 became the International Mass Retail Association. In early 2004, the organization's board of directors voted to change its name to the Retail Industry Leaders Association.
In April 2007, The Law Enforcement Retail Partnership Network, set up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, RILA, and the NRF, began operation. Law enforcement and loss prevention specialists can use the database to track and identify retail theft nationwide through a secure Web portal.

Leadership

The President of RILA, since December 2002, is Sandy Kennedy. Richard Dreiling, chairman and chief executive officer of retailer Dollar General, currently serves as RILA Chairman. He was first elected to that position in January 2014.
Retail executives serving as the 2017 Board of Directors are as follows:
The Retail Industry Leaders Association is a leading public policy advocate for the retail industry. In 2009 RILA played a key role in the debate over health care reform. RILA successfully lobbied to protect existing health care options for part-time and seasonal employees in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
In 2010, RILA also led the effort to pass reforms introduced by Senator Dick Durbin aimed at curbing the fees banks charge merchants who accept debit cards. RILA successfully defended these reforms from an effort in 2011 to unravel them.
RILA is currently at the center of the fight to what they feel is to "level the playing field" between e-tailers and brick and mortar retailers as it relates to collecting and remitting sales taxes. The effort, which has led to the passage of laws in a number of states, including Texas, California, Arkansas and Illinois, requires e-tailers to collect and remit sales taxes as traditional retailers are required to do.
In February 2017, RILA launched a campaign called Americans for Affordable Products to fight a proposed border tax that would tax retailers on goods they import and sell in the U.S.

2009 proposed merger with NRF

In April 2009, RILA and NRF announced that they would merge. NRF, based in Washington, DC, had about 100 employees; RILA had a staff of about 30. The process was expected to be completed by summer 2009, after both NRF and RILA went through a due diligence process. The boards of directors of both associations needed to recommend the merger, and members of both groups needed to approve it. The combined association was to be run during the transition by RILA President Sandy Kennedy. Kennedy said in May that she envisioned a smaller staff, of about 75, after the merger was fully completed.
In late June, the NRF and RILA announced that the merger had been called off. The decision was by the boards; members had not yet been asked to vote on the matter. "NRF and RILA will devote all resources to continuing the work they are each doing to address the serious issues that America's consumers and retailers are facing in today's economic environment," the groups said in a joint statement.