C.R. retail sales jump may signal recovery | Business 380

Flood recovery spending helped Cedar Rapids? retail sales grow at more than six times the tepid statewide rate in fiscal 2011.

Taxable retail sales grew by 6.3 percent in Cedar Rapids from July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2011, compared to a statewide increase of just under 1 percent. That compared to a statewide growth of just under 1 percent.

The findings were part of the Fiscal 2011 Retail Trade Analysis Report by the Iowa State University Regional Economic and Community Analysis Program, released last week.

Several retailers contacted this week weren?t surprised by the findings.

Craig Knapp of Home Appliance Co., 550 Oakland Road, said sales were up 11 percent in 2011 at the family own business.

?I agree with it (the report) said Knapp, one of the owners. ?It?s been strong.?

The appliance store reopened a few weeks after the June 2008 flood, and sales haven?t been pummeled by the recession.

Fiscal 2011??was a period when we saw a steady increase in sales,? said Bill Bills, one of the owners of Bills Bros. Freight Salvage Furniture, 308 Eighth Ave. SE.

Bills said he didn?t see last year?s strong sales as a direct result of the flood, however.

?I see a lot of the flood recovery spending as being satisfied,? Bills said. ?I think now it?s now it?s just general growth. Cedar Rapids is not just recovering, it?s growing.?

Lindale Mall Senior Marketing Manager Lisa Rowe said sales have definitely trended upward over the fiscal 2011 period. She said specific sales data couldn?t be released, but the fluctuations of the prior years dating back to the flood seemed to reflect the state of the economy more than the flood.

ISU economist Liesl Eathington, one of the authors of the retail trade report, said it?s plausible that flood recovery spurred fiscal 2011 spending in Cedar Rapids based on?a comparison to neighboring counties.

While taxable retail sales rose by 3.6 percent in all of Linn County for fiscal 2011, the two other counties in the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Statistical Area, Jones County and Benton County, both saw retail sales declines.

Eathington said retail sales in?Linn County?typically rise and fall in parallel with those in Johnson County to the south. But Johnson County retail sales in fiscal 2011 were essentially unchanged.

The vast majority of Cedar Rapids? retail sales increase was wrapped up in one category, ? communications, utilities and transportation firms. Iowa Department of Revenue officials said communications, such as cellular phone contracts, accounts for the largest retail tax volume in that category.

Eathington said the concentration of Cedar Rapids retail sales tax growth for the year ? 80 percent of it ? was interesting, but she could not explain it.

Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said the finding reinforces what city leaders have been telling state leaders ? that funding to ensure the city?s recovery is important to the state?s economy.

The city ranks fifth among Iowa?s top 10 cities in retail sales per capita, with taxable sales of $22,502 for each of the citys? 127,191 residents. All of the state?s top cities in per-capita sales are regional trade centers that draw many shoppers from outside.

Source: http://business380.com/2012/03/29/c-r-retail-sales-jump-may-signal-recovery/

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