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Published June 25, 2008 06:38 pm - Google these words: “Ashtabula County retail per capita.” Our lost retail dollars By CARL E. FEATHER - Lifestyle Editor - cfeather@starbeacon.com Star Beacon ASHTABULA – Google these words: “Ashtabula County retail per capita.”
Chances are the lead reference will be the 2002 U.S. Census Bureau State and County QuickFacts. Scroll down the long list of data, and you’ll come to the figure that sums up the retail expenditures made by each Ashtabula County resident in 2002: $8,383. That’s a figure of great interest to retailers researching new locations. “It has a huge a impact on it,” says Jim Timonere, Ashtabula Area Chamber of Commerce president. “The reports you receive are the same reports others look at when they are considering locating here.” While $8,383 is not small change, it pales in comparison to the 2002 Ohio figure: $10,497. That’s roughly $2,000 per person that was not spent here on things like flat-screen televisions, new cars, iPods and designer jeans, but was spent elsewhere in Ohio. Research what is spent in neighboring counties like Lake County and the discrepancy is even greater: More than $5,000 per person in that county was spent on retail than in Ashtabula County. Timonere knows where a chunk of that money being spent in neighboring counties is coming from, and he’s unhappy about it. A 2004 Retail Market Analysis conducted by The Ohio State University revealed that Ashtabula consumers spent $63 million on goods purchased outside the county. Whether it’s from Internet sales or a 45-minute trip to the Millcreek Mall, this exodus of retail dollars is reshaping the local retailing landscape like a bulldozer leveling a once prosperous community. “That is huge,” Timonere says of the retail leakage. “We got to figure out how to stop people from going to Mentor and Erie to shop.” The study showed for every person in Ashtabula, there was $1,737 in retail leakage to other markets. For Geneva, the figure was $2,309. The cities of Warren, Mentor, Erie, Pa., all showed per capita surpluses, indicating they were destinations for shoppers. One way of reconciling the $63-million leakage and the $8,383 per capita spending figure is by viewing Ashtabula County as one divided between those with the resources to gas up the car and travel to urban centers for both the necessities and niceties of life, and those who live on a paper-thin margin easily crumpled by a trip to the doctor and pharmacy, a blown engine in a 20-year-old pickup or a two-week layoff from the plastics plant. “There is such a big divide between the haves and have-nots, when the data comes out, it is skewed the other way,” says Timonere. For many of these shoppers, however, the reason is simple: diversity of retail options. Ashtabula County doesn’t have a Best Buy, Circuit City or Sam’s Club. It lacks many of the specialty boutiques offered in both malls and thriving downtown districts. For example, the retail leakage figure for Jefferson was $4,238 per resident, indicative of a small number of shopping options in the village. For those who choose to shop locally, there’s no shortage of businesses that cater to the working poor. Virtually every community has a Dollar General or Family Dollar (yes, even Rock Creek). Pizza shops, which offer a relatively cheap and convenient way to feed a family, abound, as do auto parts stores and rent-to-own shops. Ashtabula City Manager Anthony Cantagallo says a family friend visited the area shortly after Cantagallo was elected. After Cantagallo finished showing him the town, the visitor made an observation about the future of the city based on the storefronts he had seen. 
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