Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1-1980

Keywords

Brookings, South Dakota, retail, markets, consumer goods

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the 1978 retailing environment in the City of Brookings, South Dakota. A survey of over 1,000 consuming households within the Brookings area was conducted in 1978 in establishing a data base from which this analysis proceeded. The basic purpose of this consumer survey study was to help establish the extent and trends in the Brookings retail and service market. It is the purpose of this report to provide the merchants of Brookings with infonnation which will assist them in improving their operations and to help the~ to be better able to serve and meet the needs of the residents of this immediate area. The study itself was divided up into four basic parts. The first part is devoted to a discussion of the research methodology utilized in preparing the consumer survey study. The second division is devoted to the overall retail market within the City of Brookings. This section deals with the composition and extent of the retail market, the socioeconomic characteristics making up the market, and the overall effectiveness of the media in the market area. The third section deals with each of the nine major retailing markets and their submarkets. Concerns addressed within this section include the extent of the geographic market, the relative strength of the market, the impact of media advertising on the decision making process of consumers in this market and the reasons customers choose to shop in competing regional retail markets. The final section presents the data base upon which the study is founded. This data base (found in the appendix section of this report) covers such areas as the consumer response rates as to the extent of their shopping in the Brookings retail market, the frequency response rate for reasons given for shopping outside of the Brookings retail market, and the effect of media advertising on consuming households. Caution must be expressed however in the use of this study. Since the initial collection of the data base, much has changed within the retail market area as evidenced by such trends as the development of retail malls and the rapidly changing economic forces in our economy. This constantly changing business and economic environment stresses the need for developing, maintaining, updating, and evaluating a good business/economic base information system for the merchants of Brookings. Such a system is an essential and useful tool for not only the retail merchants but for others interested in developing a better Brookings corrmunity in which to live and work.

Comments

Economics Research Report 80-l

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