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Retail
Strong in Georgia
By Kyle Hensel, MBA
With retail sales totaling over $3.75 trillion in 2003, one can
safely conclude that retail is big business in the country. Retail
sales in 2003 demonstrated a healthy increase of over 4.7% from
2002’s $3.58 trillion. On the state level, Georgia also had
strong sales in the year 2002 as it reached $115 billion in retail
sales. Georgia’s retail industry continues to grow each year
as there are now over 70,000 retail locations that call the state
home. Despite an overall decline in the state’s retail sales,
the number of locations is up over 2,300 from 2001, and retailers
remain optimistic for the future of the industry in Georgia because
of the tremendous growth in the state’s population. In 2001,
twenty of the top one hundred fastest growing counties in the nation
were located in Georgia with five counties within commuting distance
of Atlanta placing in the top ten fastest growing counties.
The retail industry is the second largest employer within the state
with only the government sector which includes educators being larger.
Retailers in 2002 employed over 715,000 citizens of Georgia. With
this many people employed, almost 1 in 5 jobs in Georgia are provided
by the industry. Almost 1/3 of all these workers are below the age
of 24. This can be explained by retail being one of the most common
entrances for a young person into the workforce. Also of note is
that the rate Georgia pays its retail worker is considerably lower
than the National Average. Georgia retailer’s pay $10.50 an
hour while the national average is $11.67 per hour.
A subject some retailers worry about is online sales. Online sales
have been increasing steadily over the past few years. Sales in
2002 were estimated to be $76 billion, and were expected to reach
$96 billion in 2003. The actual numbers in 2003 were 20% higher
as online retailers achieved sales of over $114 billion. Sales online
will continue to increase as consumers feel more comfortable making
purchases on a computer versus driving to a physical location of
a store.
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