Retail Sales Report Shows Best Gains in Oil Patch, West
Sales at chain stores have grown faster this year in Oil Patch states than elsewhere in the country, while West Coast retailers have done better than their East Coast rivals, according to a report released Wednesday.
Department stores and discounters in the El Paso metropolitan area posted the best sales gain for the first half of 1989 while Akron, Ohio, retailers suffered the worst decline.
The findings were in a regional retail sales report based on results from 6,000 stores, with at least 25 employees each, in the 125 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. The stores account for $110 billion in annual sales.
The retailers, which regularly submit sales figures to the U.S. Census Bureau, include such national chains as Sears, Roebuck & Co., K mart Corp. and J. C. Penney Co.
Using data collected by the Census Bureau, the International Council of Shopping Centers is compiling a new monthly report that complements other government retail sales publications. The premiere issue covered sales for June and the first six months of 1989.
Ike Lagnado, director of research for the shopping center trade group, said the report indicates a region’s health because consumer spending at general merchandise stores is a key element of economic activity.
Nationwide, consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of economic activity.
Walter Loeb, a retail industry analyst at Morgan Stanley & Co., said at a news conference that the new reports will help analysts determine store traffic trends and sales momentum, which are crucial factors in assessing a retailer’s prospects.
According to the report for January through June, the West South Central or Oil Patch area of the country--including parts of Texas, Louisana, Arkansas and Oklahoma--had a sales gain of 11.2% over the 1988 period.
The increase was by far the best of any region and compared to a national median increase of 4.5%.
“Since the oil-dominated economies have suffered through an extended widespread economic contraction, a recent turnaround has apparently been sufficient to usher in a wave of consumer spending,” the report read.
The West had a 6.3% sales gain in the first half of 1989. On the East Coast, the south Atlantic states showed a growth rate of only 1.3% and the New England states trailed all other divisions within geographic regions, with a 2.6% drop.
