Communities of all sizes occasionally have a market analysis performed for them to measure how well they are doing in terms of changes in local economy. Generally, the intent of those who produce the report is to encourage existing and potential businesses to compete better in the regional, national and sometimes global marketplace. Community and economic development organizations also use such data to better serve their market and develop retail and main street strategies. University of Minnesota Extension staff created this report through secondary data and analysis compiled chiefly through Business Analyst, a GIS software program from Esri.
The below report is a snapshot of what the retail sector currently looks like in Duluth’s Lincoln Park/West End neighborhood. Estimates include the potential number of businesses across different store categories based on the spending of area residents (demand) compared to the number of stores in the trade area (supply). The categories where demand is greater than supply represent opportunities for business development. We calculated the demand estimates from U.S. Economic Census data and supply listings from a national database of businesses, revised by local community members for accuracy. The data in Figure 31 illustrates only the Food, Health and General Merchandise retail categories. A full calculation of all seventy-six retail NAICS categories is also located in Appendix D.
