An Associated Press dispatch filed yesterday reports that higher gas prices are helping small town retailers “to enjoy a little life after years of seeing customers bypass them for distant malls." If the change persists, "it could lead national mall developers and merchants to rethink where to build, and challenge a basic tenet of retailing," which is "[b]uild, and shoppers will come from miles away."
In Thomasville, AL, Mayor Sheldon Day (a former Wal-Mart store manager) is trying to revitalize his town with additions such as a new civic center, and he is also trying to lure J.C. Penney and Target into town. Even without those national retailers in place, Thomasville has already seen a five percent increase in sales tax revenue this its fiscal year. The same thing is true in Brewton, AL, a town of about 5,000 people where sales tax revenue is up six percent in recent months.
The opposite is occurring in the cities where people used to shop--city officials in Mobile and Montgomery say they're dealing with shortfalls, in part because out-of-towners are staying close to home.
If this is a trend, it bodes well for small towns like Columbia. We'll crunch local sales tax numbers for the past few months and report the results in a future post.
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