Shopping slump hits town in the pocketbook : A complex of factory outlet stores is the lifeblood of Boaz, Ala. But now the cash flow has slowed.

There’s a drop-off in the number of shoppers who shop till they drop, and here in Boaz that’s especially bad news.

This tiny town in northeastern Alabama thrives on shopping; it is home to one of the nation’s largest concentrations of factory outlet centers. People from all over the country stop here to buy everything from hats to shoes, carpets to teacups, all at discount prices.

The outlet complex, which opened with a few shops in 1982, has grown to 136 stores, with new ones still being built. They are stocked with merchandise ranging from top quality to overruns and seconds, most made by big-name companies.

According to the local Chamber of Commerce, the stores last year drew 5.3 million shoppers who spent $180 million. Boaz, riding a wave of shopping mania, has become Alabama’s biggest tourist attraction. You know it’s the shopping because, as everyone here freely admits, there’s nothing else.

The boom here is part of a nationwide explosion. Tom Kirwan, editor of the Clearwater, Fla.-based Value Retail News, which tracks the outlet mall industry and publishes “The Joy of Outlet Shopping” directory, says there are 280 such shopping centers nationwide, with more than 6,000 stores. Outlets, said Kirwan, “started as an East Coast phenomenon, unlike most trends that start on the West Coast and come this way. It’s starting to boom now on the West Coast.”

In the South, if shopping’s your game, Boaz is the name. The town’s 7,000 residents are used to seeing tour buses crammed with shoppers who can knock themselves out during the day and rest the night at a motel across the street from the stores.

But now there is dread in Boaz. During the busiest shopping period of the year, people are staying away in droves, say city officials and business people. The high price of gasoline, combined with the uncertainty about the economy, are blamed.

But Boaz also may have succumbed to the temptation to overdo a good thing.

Several managers said the huge number of shops that have been built and the low quality of some merchandise may be a turnoff to shoppers.

“It’s too much to cover in one day,” said Lori Goble, manager of Manhattan Industries Inc., which sells men’s and women’s clothes. “Some of these stores are not as good as you think they are.”

Boaz is now holding its breath, wondering which will prevail: the desire to save money by shopping for bargains here, or the desire to save money by not shopping at all.

“We’re concerned,” said Mayor Bruce Sanford. “If you’re not concerned, you’ve got your head in the sand.” Of its $4.5-million annual budget this year, the city is planning on $3.3 million in revenues from sales taxes.

On a recent warm fall day, not much revenue was being generated over at the Boaz Outlet Center, one of the town’s several shopping mall-like plazas with dozens of shops and a sea of asphalt for parking.

“Sales are way down, compared to previous years,” Goble said.

At Dansk Factory Outlet, manager Sandy Robertson also reported a drop in sales, noting that even shoppers who do come “are just not spending as much” as before.

So did Perry Brooks, owner of a shop specializing in eel-skin products. Asserting laconically that while economists may disagree on whether the country is in a recession, “we’re in a depression here.”

None of this is to say the parking lots are empty. There’s still some shopping going on.

On a recent day, two friends, Linda Pack and Tonya Trivett, were sitting on a bench outside a store, drinking soda and catching their breath after a shopping spree. They had driven more than an hour from Huntsville, Ala., gasoline prices be damned.

The two volunteered that they liked the center better when it was smaller, but said coming here still makes a good outing.

That’s the spirit town officials and boosters are counting on.

Mayor Sanford, for one, rejects the notion that too many stores have been built, saying many people like the idea of taking more than a day to buy their way through town.

Over at the Boaz Chamber of Commerce, Executive Director Chalmus Weathers refuses to believe the town is headed for a slump.

“Boaz is for shopping,” Weathers said. “People still have to buy clothes.”