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County retail sales rise slightly in second quarter

Recovery, however, is likely a few years away as frugality trumps spending

By Cami Joner
Published: October 6, 2010, 12:00am

Clark County retail sales remained largely flat in the second quarter of 2010, according to state figures released Tuesday, reflecting the area’s high jobless rates and frugal consumers.

And while experts believe the county’s retailers are at bottom, after seeing sales drop for two years, the recovery could be a few years away, said Deborah Ewing, a vice president of Eric Fuller & Associates Inc. commercial real estate firm in Vancouver.

Countywide store-only taxable retail sales rose 1.4 percent to $462.1 million in the three months ending June 30, compared with the same period in 2009, according to the Washington Department of Revenue. Statewide retail sales rose by 1 percent to $24.8 billion, following a national trend of slow sales growth that retailers expect to continue through the year.

Ewing expects retail sales will continue to mirror high unemployment, especially in hard-hit areas such as new-home and commercial construction.

“The construction trade in our community was driving everything. When the economy was up, people were spending, but construction is still down dramatically, and it’s probably not going to come back quite the way it was,” she said.

Some retail sectors did show improvements.

In Clark County, total store-based sales of building materials, garden equipment and related supplies climbed $1.4 million, even though contractor and construction spending was down.

Ewing speculated that idle construction workers may be using their talents on do-it-yourself projects.

“People are repairing things out of necessity, if they can, and doing their own remodeling,” Ewing said.

Auto sales also improved during the second quarter, rising to $56 million, compared with $50 million during the same three months in 2009. Ewing credited low interest rates for auto loans for the increase in vehicle sales.

“Even with high unemployment, the interest rate is so low, people are buying cars,” she said.

But general merchandise sales fell 2.9 percent to $124.2 million at area big-box and department stores in the second quarter, a period when approximately 13.7 percent, or about 29,880 of Clark County’s workers, were unemployed. In August, the county’s jobless rate rose to 13.9 percent.

“It’s probably going to stay in the double digits unless some huge employer comes to town,” Ewing said. “Our whole culture of spend, spend, spend has vanished.”

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