BY PAT FERRIER • PatFerrier@coloradoan.com • February 21, 2009
Fort Collins tax revenue
January
> Sales tax: -0.5%
> Use tax: +6.0%
> Combined sales and use taxes: +0.4%
Key sectors
> Miscellaneous retail: +2%
> General merchandise: +1.8%
> Apparel/accessory: -6.7%
> Restaurants/bars: +4.2%
> Grocery stores: +3.9%
> Hotel/lodging: -10.7%
> Building permits: -72.3%
> Car tax: +2.9 %
Sales-tax comparison
> Fort Collins: -0.5%
> Arvada: -2.8%
> Boulder: -11.5%
> Greeley: -3.9%
> Loveland: -1.3%
When retailers nationally offered deep discounts to reel in cash-strapped holiday shoppers, Fort Collins stores braced for a tough December.
Sales did, indeed, drop half of 1 percent that month, significantly better than the 10.8 percent drop in national retail sales as the economy tumbled and wary shoppers held their wallets tightly.
January tax receipts reflect sales made in December. The numbers, released Friday, have long been anticipated as a measure of the city’s retail prowess. The results were fueled by healthy sales at discounters such as Walmart, Target and Kmart.
Statewide, retail sales were down 7.5 percent; metro Denver and other Northern Colorado cities also saw greater declines than Fort Collins.
“It’s a good indication of the strength of retail sales in the city right now,” said Jeremy Reese of the city’s sales-tax division.
The city also benefited from the opening of dozens of new stores at Front Range Village on Harmony Road, including big boxes Staples, Lowe’s, SuperTarget, Sports Authority, Toys “R” Us/Babies “R” Us and others.
Shopping local
Local residents appear to have kept their money within the city whether shopping at big box retailers or mom and pop shops downtown.
“People were really aware of how they were spending their dollars,” said Ellen Zibell, owner of Sense of Place and Perennial Gardener in Old Town.
“People wanted to support local businesses and understood how their money stays in our community,” she said. “At the same time, there were some incredible deals that were very enticing” at many of the national retailers. Zibell’s December sales were down about 5 percent compared with 2008, which was one of her best years.
“The glass is half full, not half empty, and the numbers were good,” Zibell said.
At Clothes Pony, 111 N. College Ave., sales jumped 17 percent, said owner Becca Bramhall.
“I like to think people are keeping their money locally,” she said.
“We pointed out that they were supporting 12 local families” by shopping at our store, Bramhall said. “People were looking at their neighbors, hoping they were not out of work, and realized we were their neighbors. They got it on a more personal level of what shopping local means.”
Local shoppers hit discount stores, which saw sales increase nearly 2 percent, but shied away from apparel and accessory stores, which saw a 6.7 percent decline in sales.
Some of that is because of the lack of local offerings, Reese said.
“It’s not necessarily a change in spending habits,” Reese said. “Rather, it’s that we don’t have some of the store offerings in the region or Denver metro area. Those sales have exited the city in the past two to three years.”
Shoppers also stayed away from consumer electronics and home furnishing stores, which dropped 12 percent from January 2008.
Use tax gains
Use taxes – taxes paid on building permits, vehicles purchased outside the city and business equipment – rallied to a 6 percent gain in January but would have been significantly stronger if not for a 72.3 percent drop in building activity.
Residential construction remains at an all-time low in the city and elsewhere.
In January, Fort Collins and Loveland combined issued only seven permits for single-family homes.
Reese said the city is collecting building-permit projections for the rest of the year as it works on budgets for the rest of this year and next year.