Retail sales dip 3% in EBR
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Retail sales in East Baton Rouge Parish fell just over 3 percent in September, with $603.1 million in spending by businesses and consumers, figures from the city-parish Finance Department show.
The numbers, which do not include vehicle sales, fell short of September 2008, which saw Hurricane Gustav virtually shut down the city for several days then create an explosion of recovery spending.
Marsha Hanlon, the city-parish’s finance director, said the numbers were in line with what her office expected, with last year’s numbers inflated by people buying construction materials and restocking refrigerators.
“We were expecting that, because it was an odd month going against Gustav,” she said.
The amount of hurricane-related spending in September of last year is evident in the numbers for spending outside the city limits. Those have been up every month but one this year, yet this September saw them down 0.5 percent to $265.0 million.
Inside the city limits, where spending has been down every month this year, continued the trend by falling 5 percent to $338.1 million.
It’s not as if Baton Rouge has needed an anomaly like Gustav to fall short on retail spending. September was the sixth straight month of retail sales declines in a year that has seen the economy cool somewhat.
For the year, retail spending is down 1.37 percent to $5.63 billion.
Inside the city limits it’s down 8 percent to $3.04 billion and in the outlying parts of the parish it’s up 8 percent to $2.59 billion.
Hanlon pointed out that figures from the popular “Cash for Clunkers” program are starting to show up, with spending on vehicles spiking 25 percent in September. This is in marked contrast with vehicle sales prior to September, which have been down between 10 percent and 25 percent every other month this year.
For the year, vehicle sales are down 14 percent.
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