Colorado retailers lure Wyo. retailers

CHEYENNE – Cheyenne residents still like a road trip for shopping, and one of the newcomers to the Front Range – the outlet mall in Loveland – is emerging as one of the fastest-growing attractions.While Cheyenne’s retail trade picture has been one of the bright spots in the city’s economic picture, surveys continue to show significant shopping leakage to the Colorado Front Range.
Fort Collins remains the preferred destination for out-of-town shopping, according to the latest Cheyenne City Citizen Survey, but Loveland’s outlet mall has edged Denver as the second-place shopping destination.
“There’s definitely leakage,´ said Dick O’Gara, director of the Center for Economic and Business Data at Laramie County Community College, who along with the City Planning Department prepared both the 1995 and 1996 citizen surveys. “There’s been very little change, and it definitely shows that people are spending out of town, and we now know in what areas they tend to spend their money, where we’re seeing the biggest leakages, and we know where they go.”
According to the citizen surveys, when Cheyenne residents head out of town to shop, they head south. Two-thirds of them (67 percent) reported Fort Collins as their favorite destination, and another 15 percent said it was their second most-common destination.
The Rocky Mountain Factory Stores outlet mall in Loveland was second, with 14.9 percent listing it as their most common out-of-town shopping destination, followed by 18.5 percent listing the outlet mall as their second-most-common destination and 21.6 percent listing it as their third most common.
Denver was picked by 14.4 percent as the favorite shopping destination, while 20.6 percent listed Denver as their second choice and 19.2 percent listed it as third most common.
Other Front Range locations attract 4 percent of the out-of-town shoppers as their most common destination, followed by Laramie at 2.9 percent and Greeley at 2.4 percent
As was the case last year, the vast majority of Cheyenne residents buy their groceries locally (87 percent buy 90 percent or more of their groceries at home), and more than two-thirds shop Cheyenne for 90 percent or more of their appliances and home repair and hardware items (68 percent).
But the survey shows considerable leakage for automobiles, furniture, clothing and recreation and entertainment.
For example, only 57 percent said they buy 90 percent or more of their automobiles in Cheyenne, only 54 percent said they buy 90 percent or more of their furniture in Cheyenne, and only 44 percent said they buy 90 percent or more of their clothing in Cheyenne.
Less than 43 percent eat at Cheyenne restaurants 90 percent or more of the times they eat out. The response for recreation was even lower – only 37 percent of the citizens said 90 percent or more of their recreation purchases were in Cheyenne. (The lowest was catalog sales, with only 18 percent reporting 90 percent or more of their catalog purchases in Cheyenne).
So while retail sales are up in Cheyenne, the community is still losing significant retail dollars to Colorado, according to O’Gara.
“I’m pretty well satisfied that Cheyenne’s mall has become to some degree a regional draw,” he said. “If we can continue to improve on that, that’s going to be a major positive factor for us, and then if we can reduce the amount of leakage from people leaving Laramie County and spending their money somewhere else, that’s a positive.”
Survey respondents cited better selection (177 respondents), better price (183) and variety (71) as the most common reasons they shop out of town. Cheyenne would be more desirable for shopping with better selection (58), lower prices (53), more variety of stores (43) and more spread out shopping than Dell Range (38).
The continuing tendency to head south for shopping doesn’t mean that Cheyenne residents don’t like their home town, however.
The citizen survey showed that 87 percent think Cheyenne is a great place to live. And when asked about quality of life in their neighborhoods, 43 percent say it’s above average and 44 percent say it’s satisfactory. But most still like an occasional shopping road trip.ÿ