GM’s Employee Discount Offer Attracts Shoppers

General Motors Corp.’s program to offer an employee discount to all U.S. buyers is increasing the volume of shoppers by as much as 30% at dealerships in markets with historically low GM sales, a sales analyst said Wednesday.

The number of customers visiting GM dealerships rose 30% in Los Angeles and San Diego and 20% in Miami in the first half of June compared with a year earlier, according to Art Spinella, president of Bandon, Ore.-based CNW Marketing Research Inc.

GM made the employee rebate available to all customers June 1, after U.S. sales fell 6.7% in the first five months of the year.

“To see an increase this big in an area like Los Angeles and San Diego is critical for GM because those are areas where they have always floundered,” said Spinella, whose firm employs people to count customers at 450 dealerships in 27 markets. “This should lead to higher sales.”

GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said in April that the automaker needed to raise its presence in markets such as Miami and Los Angeles, where the company’s market share had dropped to a “ridiculous” level. A shift in advertising to those markets is part of GM’s plan to recover from a $1.1-billion first-quarter loss, its biggest quarterly loss in 13 years.

The discount program expires July 5.

Shares of GM rose 47 cents Wednesday to $36.34.