Salisbury Retail Sales Middle of Road; Wages Encouraging

BY MARK WINEKA
SALISBURY POST

People read statistics in different ways. For Salisbury, when it comes to retail sales, the numbers can say a couple of things.

One, Salisbury is about where it should be compared to other cities in North Carolina. Or two, sales need an energy boost. It depends on your point of reference.

''It appears Salisbury is very close to where it should be,'' city planner Harold Poole said. Poole compiled some retail sales comparisons of Salisbury and other N.C. cities that he shared with the Salisbury Planning Board Tuesday.

The board took the numbers only as information near the end of its regular monthly meeting. Also, Poole's comparative numbers on average weekly wages among Piedmont counties were encouraging, showing that Rowan County was highly competitive among counties its size.

But back to retail sales. Salisbury ranks 22nd in the state in population and 24th among N.C. cities in gross retail sales, based on fiscal year 1997-98 figures collected by the N.C. Department of Revenue. Sounds reasonable.

Figure Salisbury's gross retail sales per capita, however, and the city falls to 32nd in the rankings (out of 50 listed by Poole). Salisbury has a gross retail sales per capita of $24,136, which brings it in just behind Raleigh and Winston-Salem, which rank 30th and 31st.

Fayetteville (37th), High Point (38th), Gastonia (40th), Concord (44th), Durham (45th), Cary (46th), Jacksonville (49th) and Kannapolis (50th) are among those cities ranking lower than Salisbury in gross retail sales per capita.

Kannapolis has sales of just $9,604 per capita, according to Poole's study.

Mount Airy ($66,809), Hendersonville ($58,155) and Morehead City ($45,977) rank as the top three cities, respectively, in the same category. Poole noted that each of those three could be considered tourist towns.

Mount Airy is only the 75th largest city in North Carolina, yet it ranks 30th in gross retail sales. Hickory and Statesville rank fourth and fifth in gross retail sales per capita; Mooresville, 10th.

Charlotte, which has more gross retail sales than any other city and also ranks first in population, comes in 24th when you break those sales down by population.

Poole also looked at average weekly wages for 32 Piedmont counties, excluding the ''metro'' counties of Mecklenburg, Guilford, Forsyth, Wake, Durham and Orange. Out of those 32, Rowan ranked second only behind Cabarrus County.

Cabarrus showed an average weekly wage of $481.85; Rowan, $468.10. The figures were based on Employment Security Commission numbers from the first quarter in 1997 and released in November 1998.

Rounding out the top 10, non-metro counties in the Piedmont were Union, Person, Catawba, Iredell, Gaston, Cleveland, Lee and Scotland. Davidson County came in 14th in average weekly wage; Stanly, 17th; and Davie, 21st;

Poole further compared Rowan, Cabarrus, Iredell, Davie, Davidson and Stanly counties in average weekly wages for numerous job categories.

Of those six counties, Rowan ranked first in weekly wages in five different categories: mining, manufacturing, retail trade, government wages overall and federal government jobs in particular.

Cabarrus ranked first in construction wages; fire, insurance and real estate; services and local government. Iredell County led the way in agricultural wages. Davie ranked first among the six counties in state government wages. Stanly County had the best transportation, communication and utilities wages (one category).

''The figures make us stand out more than others know,'' said Eldridge Williams, vice chairman of the Salisbury Planning Board. ''These are some great figures.''

As for population growth, Poole had three figures for each of the top 40 N.C. cities: the 1997 population estimate by the Office of State Planning, the 1990 Census and the 1980 Census.

''This is very dependent on annexation,'' Poole said, describing annexation policies in Salisbury and Statesville as moderate compared to what has happened in cities such as Concord and Cary.

In 1980, Concord had 16,942 people, well below Salisbury's 22,677. But Most recent estimates put Concord's population at 45,349, compared to Salisbury's 26,883.

Poole noted that Concord's size, thanks to annexation, approaches 50 square miles today, compared to Salisbury's 17 square miles.

Cary has grown from 21,763 people in the 1980 Census to 80,751, making it the seventh largest N.C. city today.

The top 10 cities in population are Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Durham, Fayetteville, Cary, Jacksonville, High Point and Asheville. Kannapolis ranks 20th in population, estimated at 35,693. Concord is 16th; Statesville, 26th, with 21,867 people.