Bah! Humbug! Holiday Sales Didn’t Cut It

The numbers are finally in, and last Christmas shopping season was not the merry old time for Spokane merchants that many predicted it would be, myself included.

State Department of Revenue statistics show the dollar value of taxable retail sales in the city and the county combined edged up a paltry 1.1 percent.

Even more disappointing, taking inflation into account, that translates to a loss of 2 or 3 percent.

And it contrasts starkly with explosive fourth-quarter sales gains a year earlier of 15.1 percent.

Again, these figures are for the city and county combined.

For the city alone, there was virtually no change in the figures between last Christmas and Christmas ‘93.

Neither the state nor anyone else breaks out the figures for downtowntown. But anecdotal evidence is overwhelming that last Christmas downtown was - face it - a bummer.

For the year as a whole, the totals look much better than those for the fourth quarter.

In metropolitan Spokane overall - city and county combined - unadjusted 1994 sales rose 7.5 percent.

In just the city, the figure is 5 percent. Not so hot, taking inflation into account. And the disparate showing of strength between the city and county is more evidence of urban retail sprawl.

In the same vein, while the figures aren’t split out, it is clear the city’s strength as a shopping center continues to shift from the central business district to outlying malls and discount stores.

Now comes Sears with plans for a big new store in the proposed Spokane Valley Mall. Sears divulged last week that it has signed a letter of intent to build a new full-line facility comparable to its NorthTown Mall store, plus an eight-bay auto center.

Sears joins The Bon and J.C. Penney as anchors who have committed to the project.

That does it. I’m convinced the long-awaited Spokane Valley Mall is as good as a done deal.

The site is ideal. The battle is on between NorthTown and the Spokane Valley for top mall.

But don’t count out downtown.

The retail core must offer shoppers unrivaled quality, which is precisely the aim of redevelopment efforts under way and in the offing. Downtown must reign supreme as a specialty shopping center.

Either that, quips an office wag, or get into mini-storage in a big way.

Returning to the latest retail sales stats:

Despite a truly dismal final quarter, for all of last year Spokane managed a respectable gain of 7.5 percent. That compares with 9.6 percent in 1993.

Figures are unavailable for this year as yet. For a raft of reasons too tedious to go into, published reports of the State Revenue Department routinely lag the end of a quarter by six months or more.

Last year, the first solid retail trade figures for the first quarter didn’t make print until the end of October. But the results were worth the wait - up 17 percent in the first quarter! I confidently predicted a “super” fourth quarter.

But things went downhill from there.

As already stated, the state won’t put out any official numbers on this year’s performance for another couple months.

But all signs point to continuing sluggish sales activity all over town.

Both the city and the county report sales tax receipts in recent months have been running considerably behind collections in the same months last year. The city appears to be taking the hardest hit.

For perspective, here’s a look at percentage changes in retail trade for the city-county metropolitan area over the past decade:

1994 - up 7.5 percent.

1993 - up 9.6.

1992 - up 8.2.

1991 - up 8.3.

1990 - up 8.2.

1989 - up 13.5.

1988 - up 7.2.

1987 - up 0.4.

1986 - up 1.9.

1985 - down 0.7.

Metro-wide sales in the 10-year period rose 85 percent.

City sales grew 78 percent, due largely to a doubling of NorthTown, construction of Northpointe Plaza and erection of several large free-standing discount stores. County sales excluding the city about doubled - up 96 percent.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel’s column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday.