Small Town Grocers in Iowa: What Does the Future Hold?

This publication is intended for communities struggling with declining retail and the loss of a grocery store. Across the state, small communities are losing their grocery stores at a rapid rate. Economic conditions force some stores to shut down and still others try to find potential buyers but are eventually forced to close as well. Small grocers face myriad pressures that make their existence and future tenuous. Small town residents fear the closing of the local grocery store for economic reasons as well as quality of life issues. This report looks at the factors influencing the viability of grocery stores as well as the impacts on communities and residents when the store is lost. Data and analysis are presented with suggestions for communities trying to maintain a grocery store as well as means of coping for towns that have already lost their local grocery.

Iowa Retail & Service Business Threshold Analysis: A Comparative Look at 2000-2005

This report provides information for communities and business owners to increase their understanding of retail trends in Iowa. Using data for the years 2000-2005, trends are monitored in demand threshold levels for different types of service and retail businesses while accounting for differences in employer firms and non-employer firms. The distinction between employer firms which report a payroll and non-employer firms which report no paid employees, allows us to reach conclusions about start up costs in different areas and which segments of the Iowa’s economy have the most growth potential. In general, demand threshold levels decreased during the time period 2000-2005 for select service related businesses while in the retail arena superstores represented the only category with substantial reduction in threshold levels. Across the state, retail threshold levels for businesses that require a physical location saw increases in threshold levels. Separating the data between employer and non-employer firms also shows that increases in sole-proprietorships has largely been concentrated in hobby type businesses rather than growth type businesses. Looking at the trends in threshold analysis allows us to glimpse the competitive forces at work in the state, and see areas where profit opportunities and entry and exit of firms have seen the most dramatic changes.

Retail Forecast Holiday 2009

Despite pronouncements that the recession ended in the third quarter of 2009, the prospects for the holiday retail season remain bleak. This report describes the factors that will continue to suppress retail sales for the holiday season and beyond and forecasts how different retail categories will fare this holiday season.

Tips for Running a Business During Tough Times

This PDF presentation is designed to be used by business owners, chamber groups, and communities. The presentation details some negative economic indicators and highlights strategies and tools that can be used to grow or sustain a business during recessionary times.

Iowa's Retail Almanac 1998-2008

This publication is intended as a resource for existing or potential business owners, community leaders, and economic development professionals to determine retail industry conditions are by category in Iowa. Data is represented in both tables and graphs and shows the last ten years performance in each retail or service business category. Using data from the Iowa Department of Revenue sales and use tax reports, calculations are made to determine the performance of each retail category. It is important to note that the figures in this report are based on taxable sales so within certain categories, for example grocery stores, sales may be underreported here due to the fact that the majority of grocery store sales are not taxable. Additionally, this report does report some businesses that pay a use tax so the figures in this report may not match those published annually in the Iowa State University Retail Trade Analysis Program's annual reports for Iowa's communities and counties. The figures included for each category include the number of businesses per category and the sales per business in real 2008 dollars (inflation adjusted). Trends in the number of businesses can identify which categories are growing or declining when analyzed with the average sales per firm. For example, if the number of businesses is increasing but the sales per firm are decreasing this might indicate that a category has become saturated. This phenomenon results from too much entry by new businesses which decreases sales per firm and most likely, profits per firm. If the sales per firm are increasing but the number of businesses are decreasing this indicates that the category is experiencing consolidation whereby large firms dominate and smaller firms exit the market. Consolidation is major structural change in a category and is becoming more common due to large big box retailers, population trends in rural areas, and the overall economic climate. If sales per firm and the number of businesses are both increasing this can indicate a category with growth potential and an inference can be made that there may be increasing consumer demand in this category. Also reported here are actual sales (nominal), real sales, and sales per capita which represent the amount the average Iowan spends in a particular category annually. Finally, a population threshold is reported for each retail and service category. The population threshold is the average population required to sustain a certain type of business. If the population threshold is 6,000 for a category that means on average, all other things being equal, a business of that type would be unsustainable in a community or area with less than 6,000 residents. Many retail and service categories are experiencing increasing population thresholds due to the consolidation of trade spatially as well as structurally.

Iowa Retail & Service Business Threshold Analysis: A Comparative Look at Iowa's Counties

This report provides information for communities and business owners to increase their understanding of retail trends in Iowa and is Part 2 in the Threshold Analysis Series. The previous report focused on statewide threshold levels for retail and service businesses between the years 2000 and 2005, primarily to focus on trends in the number of people required for certain businesses to be sustainable. This report provides a more in depth analysis of threshold levels at the county level recognizing that Iowa’s retail landscape is diverse and the differences between counties vast. Using County Business Pattern data and Non-Employer Statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2005, this report groups similar counties into peer groups to take into account differences in income levels, commuting patterns, and degrees of rurality. The results demonstrate that threshold levels for very few businesses and services are consistent across the state’s counties. Specialized retail stores see increasing thresholds the further from the metro area we move while common services like waste collection and death care services see declining threshold levels. The results indicate that county specific analysis can highlight where we see agglomeration of services, economies of scale, and where the elasticity of price and convenience matter most to the consumer. The report includes county by county comparison with their respective peer group, tables reporting the employer and non-employer data, and suggestions on where opportunities for more research exist.

Economic Impacts of the 2008 Floods in Iowa

Measuring the economic consequences of the 2008 Iowa floods requires careful consideration of what exactly is to be counted as an economic outcome. Property losses and damaged infrastructure mark reductions in overall private and public assets. Ruined or slowed businesses result in constrained productivity. Workers get laid off and household incomes decline. Alternatively, natural disasters require a tremendous amount of recovery spending which stimulates economic activity. This brief report looks at the scope of economic consequences and describes the kinds of economic impacts that might be anticipated in Iowa.

Differences in Ventilatory Patterns between Overweight and Normal Weight Children during Rest, Low, Moderate and High Speed Exercise

This study examined if overweight youth have modified ventilatory patterns at rest and during low, moderate and high speed exercise, compared to normal weight youth. Eighty OW (>85th) were matched for age, sex and height with 80 NW (>5th and =85th) youth. Data was collected at rest and then during three exercise speeds (4 km/h, 5.6 km/h, and 8 km/h). Metabolic rates were higher for the OW in all conditions. Multiple regression analyses revealed that VE, VT, fR and VD were greater in the OW than NW (p0.05). Correlations between VE and PETCO2 were significant for all conditions for the OW, but only at rest for the NW. Findings suggest that overweight children must meet greater metabolic demands during exercise by increasing their VE via VT and fR; the possible stimulus may be CO2

Pliocene Diatom Biomarkers in Sabrina Coast. EAIS Continental Marginal Dynamics

PNRA Tytan project, supported by the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS), focused on the advances and retreats dynamics of the ice sheet and on variations in the glacial regime. Unit 2 focused on Diatom biomarkers and assemblages analysis on sediments of core PC03, collected during the IN2017-V01 cruise on the eastern flank of the Minang-a (or Whale) submarine Canyon. The project aims at reconstructing the depositional environment of the continental margin off the Totten Glacier and diatom data remained a key tools to constrain past ice-sheet dynamics and to forecasting future behaviour in a warming world. Preliminary dataset from diatom biostratigraphic tools allows to refer the base of the core to Pliocene while the upper part of the core records more modern EAIS dynamics, indicative of minor sedimentary evolution steps of the continental margin. Diatom assemblage analyses highlight Eocene-Oligocene reworked material and freshwater diatom inputs in Pliocene sequence, strengthening the debate about ice-sheet and paleoceanographic models, WAIS cyclic collapse and suspected Pliocene EAIS retreat into major subglacial Antarctic basins