Heartland Chapter

What's Worth It? Showing Up. At the beginning of this year, we set out to explore retail in the Heartland through one deceptively simple question: What’s worth it? What’s worth leaving the house for? What’s worth paying more for, traveling farther for, lingering longer in, or returning to? And, perhaps most importantly, what kinds of places and experiences are worth sharing with other people? Throughout 2026, that question took us from the future of grocery stores to the stra

International Vice President Kathryn Patton-Miller, RDI, provides the latest news and updates from the Retail Design Institute in the Fall 2026 Institute Newsletter.

The World's Game, on Our Home Turf Over the past few weeks, Kansas City has found itself in a rare position: not just watching the World Cup from afar but participating in it as one of the handful of American cities selected to host. These past few weeks for me have served as a powerful indicator that the Heartland isn't relegated to the sidelines... we are, in fact, a major player in the game. For a region too often written off as "flyover country," getting this much primeti

by Jessie Sanders, RDI, NCIDQ heartland@retaildesigninstitute.org The RDI Heartland Group stands outside the entrance to Atlas9 with guest presenter Randall Statler, Executive Creative Director at Dimensional Innovations. Photo Credit: Maximus Coric Walking into Atlas 9 last week felt a little like stepping back into my own childhood—if my childhood had included a few more interdimensional anomalies. One of my very first jobs was working concessions at the local dollar movie