<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=192888919167017&amp;ev=PageView&amp;noscript=1">
Thursday, March 28, 2024
March 28, 2024

Linkedin Pinterest

County retail sales declined in 3Q

Big-ticket items sluggish, but other sectors saw growth

By Cami Joner
Published: January 15, 2010, 12:00am

Clark County merchants were slightly better off than their statewide counterparts in last year’s third quarter, although contractors and manufacturers continued to suffer, according to a state report this week.

Store-only retail sales in Clark County fell 5.8 percent to $471 million in the three months ending in September, compared to the same period in 2008. By contrast, statewide store-only retail sales dropped 6.1 percent to $11.6 billion, reported the Washington Department of Revenue.

“We’ve all lived with this recession for a while and although consumers are cutting back, those that are capable are starting to go back to shopping,” said Pam Lindloff, an associate vice president and retail expert with NAI Norris Beggs & Simpson in Vancouver.

Department stores and general merchandise stores such as Walmart and Fred Meyer saw taxable, store-only sales improve by about $700,000 in the quarter.

“They (department stores) actually benefitted from back-to-school shoppers,” Lindloff said.

Grocery store and convenience store sales also increased by 4.6 percent.

“More people were trading dining out for eating at home,” Lindloff said.

She said fewer Clark County shoppers were purchasing big-ticket items in the third quarter as evidenced by flat sales figures for new and used autos, despite the federal Cash for Clunkers program. Sales of appliances and televisions were down 34 percent to $6.1 million.

Nevertheless, for Clark County, the third quarter store-only sales decline was the smallest quarterly drop-off last year. Sales here fell 8.9 percent in the second quarter and 11.9 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

“Consumers are getting a little tired of holding back,” Lindloff said.

However, if all third-quarter sales including those related to construction and manufacturing are added into the mix, the county saw a much larger, 15.7 percent decline in taxable retail sales to $993 million, down $184.4 million for the third quarter.

Much of it had to do with the plummeting number of construction projects that are subject to sales tax. In Clark County, the work fell by 46.7 percent, dropping to $128.4 million worth of projects in 2009, down from $240.8 million worth in 2008.

The construction downturn set a statewide record, falling 25 percent from 2008 to $4.8 billion, said Mike Gowrylow, the revenue department’s communications director.

“The severity of it is so dramatic it tops everything on our record books” going back to 1970, Gowrylow said.

In Clark County, the construction slump was two fold.

For the local home-building industry, 2009 was one of the slowest years in the past two decades as the value of new-home construction dropped below $100 million, down from peak building years in 2004 and 2005 when values topped $325 million.

For commercial construction, such as office, retail and industrial projects, the work in 2009 also plummeted as banks all but put a halt to lending for new development.

Subcategories added to the shrinking margins, including new-tenant expansions and projects to improve interior retail space.

“When you don’t have new product going up, you’re also not going to have the expenditures for tenant improvements,” Lindloff said.

Taxable sales from real estate rentals and leasing fell by 31 percent to $8.6 million.

Manufacturing taxable sales fell dramatically in Clark County, dropping by 37.2 percent from $28 million to $17.6 million in the third quarter.

Lindloff said she expects a less gloomy report from the state when it releases its 2009 fourth quarter taxable retail sales figures, expected by April.

“I think you’ll see fourth quarter numbers will be slightly up, though not significantly and not enough to pull us out of a loss for the year, but it will show some improvement,” she said.

Loading...