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Show The Enterpise Review, July 14, 1976 Page 6b Surge in City Sales Reverses Continued From Page lb In I960, before suburban shopping centers began detracting business from city streets, city merchants generated 71.8 percent of the Salt Lake County sales revenue. By 1965 their share had slipped to 60.96 percent, and in 1970 to 57.23 percent. In 1973, after Fashion Place mall opened, the citys share of the county market dropped to 55.35 percent, and in 1972 it was down to 53.09 percent. The fact that the upswing of city business occurred during the first quarter is also significant. According to Don Bosch of the State Tax Commission sales taxes collected furing the first quarter of the year are the lowest reflecting exhausted pocket books from The Christmas spending. second quarter is usually higher, beginning to reflect tourism and increased con- sumer spending. Third quarter spending is usually higher and fourth quarter is always the highest, since it includes the Christmas season. There is no doubt about it, said Richard Turpin of the city Redevelopment Agency, who has carefully studied the effects of downtown renovation. The ZCMI center is the reason. It is a draw, much better than anyone anticipated. Downtown now has a shopping center that can compete with the others. To the effect of the ZCMI center you can add increased tourism and the fact Trend 15-Ye- ar that the major hotels downtown, he added. are The Redevelopment Agency recently commissioned an economic base study of Salt Lake City which analyzed retail sales potential downtown. In analyzing patterns of consumption of downtown shoppers, the study authors noted that most urban shoppers buy convenience items, and that they spend more for those items than they do for general merchandise. City's Share of the Market QUARTER 3rd 74 4th '74 1st '75 2nd '75 3rd '75 4lh '75 Percent 53.5 53.0 ' 52.5 52.0 513 51.0 50.5 50.0 40.5 1st '76 Based on that information, they predicted tha the ZCMI Center and Keith Warshaw and Company will reverse or stabilize the decline of the city share of the market for shoppers goods. The study authors predicted the downtown area could attain a market penetration as high as 60 percent. Center Sales Increased According to Frank Newman, manager of the Association of Stores of the ZCMI Center, business in the ZCMI store itself has gone He added up dramatically. that stores in surrounding blocks have reported inOne store creased sales. manager has told me that on the day the Center opened his business went up 40 percent, and it has gone up as much as 150 percent since, Newman said. He attributed increased business to the fact that many of the stores in the center have never been in this part He said he of town before. could not speculate regarding the types of items consumers are buying because the center has 50 stores, and a wide variety of merchandise. Newman pointed to con- sistent business from customers as one source of increased business. Every time we have a contest where people put their addresses on cards, we find a number of people from .Wyoming and And he said. Colorado, Joseph Magnin finds at least out-of-sta- te 48.0 five out-of-sta- te addresses on every page of its computer print outs, he added. He said Bountiful, the Avenues, and the Cottonwood areas have also been major Now sources of business. that we have more parking space people can come here from greater distances, he said. Newman noted that the ZCMI store itself is now one of the largest stores in the country, with 400,000 square feet. People coming to Salt Lake to see attorneys and doctors are staying here to do shopping, he speculated. Board of ISecamase Dtps Date. We think the TV late news is aptly named. So is the Late Edition of your newspaper. Because by the time you get it, it is late. KWMS 1280 doesnt have any late news. Ours is all up to the minute, 24 hours a day. The world's largest news gathering news team lets you know what is happening around the nation and around the world. And well let you know whats going on around ouf town with all the news, all the time. 1280 on your AM dial. Realtors Note Sales Residential sales for week 110 ending July 9, 1976: properties sold for $4,312,451. Six apartment duplexes sold for $292,950. Ten vacant lots sold for $77,540. Commerical (Industrial) sales for week ending July 9, 1976: Three pieces of business property sold for $59,165. |