Shopping Meccas Top Pinpoint Demographics’ 2011 List of Clothing Stores Per Capita

Woolwich, ME, February 19, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Both places with reputations for trend watching and fabulous shopping, SoHo and Las Vegas are among the neighborhoods with the highest number of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing stores per capita in the United States, according to new 2011 forecast data released by Pinpoint Demographics. Other communities, including Paramus, N.J., Chicago Ill., and the tourist destination of Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii, placed in the top ten, which are broken down by zip codes.

The zip code including SoHo, Washington Square, and Northern Little Italy (called NoLita), topped the list. With a largely white and affluent population, as well as tourist traffic, these neighborhoods can support expensive boutiques, designer fashions, trendy shops and vintage resellers. These New York neighborhoods had 191 men’s, women’s and children’s clothing stores in 2010. The expense of real estate and the limited square footage available for retail spaces in part explains the higher number of small, niche shops.

Las Vegas, on the other hand, has a reputation as America’s adult playground. Despite the recession, in 2010, Forbes ranked the Las Vegas Strip as the second most-visited tourist destination in the United States. Vegas, with about 29 million visitors in 2009, ranked second only to Times Square, which had more than 36 million visitors that same year. The neighborhood in Las Vegas making this list includes the strip and most of the larger hotel/casino resort, which have large shopping areas within them. Las Vegas, with a slightly denser population, had a slightly higher number of clothing stores, but took in slightly more revenue than area in first place - $642 million in 2010 versus $622 million for SoHo and its neighbors.

Both the first and second place locations’ 2010 revenues pale in comparison to that of the number three location on the list, Paramus, N.J., which took in $840 million. This is even more surprising because Paramus, part of Bergen County, has some of the strictest blue laws in the nation. All of its retail stores, except for grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations and restaurants, are closed on Sundays. Voters repeatedly have rejected attempts to overturn the laws, preferring either to maintain a sense of peace and quiet on one day a week, or just to ease the traffic caused by the influx of shoppers on the other six days.

“Definitely location, location, location,” Fred Rohdieck, president of the Greater Paramus Chamber of Commerce, answered when asked what makes Paramus the highest-grossing retail zip code in the country. Paramus, which lies only 10 miles from the George Washington Bridge, can be easily accessed by several highways. Its close proximity to a large population center makes it a shopping mecca.

As Rohdiek noted, the “malls are on or near the busiest crossroad in New Jersey - and maybe in the U.S. - Route 4 and Route 17. Paramus is also located near three exits of Garden State Parkway and I-80, also very close to upper New York City and close to the New York State border. More than 300,000 cars pass the malls each day.” The Greater Paramus Chamber of Commerce estimates that between 8 and 10% of shoppers are from New York.

Nevertheless, location does not tell the whole story for Paramus, according to Rohdieck. “Location plus the affluence of Bergen County plus no tax on clothes in New Jersey plus New York State’s clothing tax, combined with well-run and very attractive area malls means shoppers have lots of choices,” he said. “There are three major malls well within 1 mile. There are lots of stores, but also a large variety of stores, from high end to outlets.” Men’s, women’s and children’s clothing stores employ more than 3,800 people in Paramus.

Rohdieck is proud of his community’s success and ability to compete with destinations like Las Vegas, especially when the blue laws are factored into the equation. As he exclaimed, “And all of this with Sundays closed due to blue laws -wow!”

Pinpoint Demographics, a division of Barnes Reports, is a leading demographics research firm located in Woolwich, Maine. Pinpoint Demographics provides the most current, accurate and cost-effective data population demographics, consumer spending, retail business and services businesses estimates for each of the 30,000+ U.S. zip codes. Pinpoint’s proprietary economic model uses exponential regression analysis to annually estimate 2011 and five year forecast 2016 populations, broken down by race, age, income, educational attainment and occupation.

Pinpoint Demographics’ databases are available in a number of products. The “America’s Neighborhoods” series are annual print handbooks of population and consumer spending databases by zip code or U.S. county. Pinpoint’s zip code databases are broken out by U.S. state and available for immediate purchase and download on its website www.pinpointdemographics.com. Free sample zip code data is available on www.uszipcodedemographics.com.

Top Ten Cities by Number of Clothing Stores per Capita, 2011

1. SoHo, Washington Square & NoLita, New York, N.Y. 10012
2. Las Vegas, Nev. 89109
3. Paramus, N.J. 07652
4. Chicago, Ill. 60611
5. Honolulu, Hawaii 96815
6. Branson, Mo. 65616
7. Orlando, Fla. 32819
8. TriBeCa, New York, N.Y. 10013
9. Garden City, N.Y. 11530
10. Miami Beach, Fla. 33139

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