4 PCSR 07-14-1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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7 .. Tablet: Sales Change in Wal-Mart Towns vs. Same Size Towns (real % cumulative) Wal-Mart Towns Same Size Towns 1111 Business Type After Years After Years 1 3 5 1 3 5 Building Materials - 9 . 1 - 8 . 1 -5 . 8 -2.4 - 1 3.9 - 1 9.6 General Merchandise 42_$ "43.4. 38.7, L.a -6.6 -9 .5 Food -6 . 1 -3 .3 .. E .2 2"':9 Apparel -0 .9 - 9 .4 - 1 8. 1 -4.4 -6 . 9 - 1 1 .4 Home Furnishings - 4 : 85 > D5 - 1 .3 - 1 3 .9 - 1 8.3 Eating & Drinking ' 4.4 3.5 6.9 - 4 -6 .3 Specialty -8 .8 - 1 1 .2• - 1 8 .7 -3. 8 - 1 1 .4 - 1 8.6 TOTAL SALES 3' fi 4.3 6.'.5 :8', -6 .2 - 9 .7 = Gainers Wal-Mart Towns • General merchandise sales increased strongly. • Home furnishings gained, compared to non Wal-Mart towns. • Eating and drinking firms had substantial gains. • Total sales steadily increased in comparison to state sales. • Food (grocery) sales decreased, compared to non Wal-Mart towns. • Specialty store sales decreased substantially. Non Wal-Mart Towns of Same Size • After the first year, only food (grocery) sales gained. • Building materials sales decreased rapidly. • • Apparel sales declined, but not as much as in Wal-Mart towns. • Home furnishings sales decreased substantially. • Specialty sales decreased about as much as in Wal-Mart towns. • Total sales showed some decrease, compared to Wal-Mart towns. Netting out Sales To get a better idea of the internal impact of a Wal-Mart store on a host town, it is useful to "net out" the sales. Basically, this means making an estimate of the Wal-Mart store's sales. It was estimated that for the average town in Iowa, Wal-Mart sales were $17 million last year. Figure 1 shows the netting out process based on this estimate and actual sales changes for all other businesses. The following conclusions can be made based on Figure 1. • If the Wal-Mart store had sales of $17 million and the total sales of the town only increased by $7 million, then there had been a total reduction of sales in the town of $10 million for existing merchants. • If the Wal-Mart store had sales of $17 million and the general merchandise category (of which they are a part) increased by only $11 million, then existing general merchandise dealers suffered sales reductions of $6 million. • If general merchandise stores accounted for $6 million of the total $10 million reduction, then the net reduction in sales for other existing merchants must have been $4 million. •