City in Top 10 for Retail Growth Next Year

By Ted Nesi
Providence Business News
PROVIDENCE – The Providence metropolitan area is one of the 10 U.S. regions most likely to see its retail sector grow next year, according to a new study by Pitney Bowes Inc.
The Stamford, Conn.-based company’s Pitney Bowes Business Insight division ranked the Providence-New Bedford-Fall River metro area at No. 9 on a list of 10 markets where it expects retailers to perform the best over the next six quarters.
The Providence market “is projected to have above average GDP growth for 2009 and favorable growth into 2010, ranking it in the top 10 for mid-tier and high-end retail,” the firm’s analysts said.
Pitney Bowes said it compiled the rankings using a proprietary tool called MarketPulse that analyzed current and projected macroeconomic, demographic and sales data. To create the rankings, the firm used retail sales for the past six quarters to estimate sales growth for the next six.
All but one city in Pitney Bowes’ top five are in Texas: Austin, Baltimore, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. The bottom half of the top 10 was made up of Washington, D.C., Seattle, Kansas City, Providence and Columbus, Ohio.
“Despite the economic downturn, certain markets have remained strong and others are now showing signs of recovery,” Devon Wolfe, managing director of Americas strategy and analytics services at Pitney Bowes Business Insight, said in a news release.
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