Yelp Economic Average Finds California’s Urban Centers are Declining - Seite 2

California’s shopping businesses have been hardest hit, ranking at the bottom in each of the five California metros, with stores selling shoes, cellphones, and women’s clothing falling the sharpest. Restaurants, food, and nightlife categories are also struggling in all five California cities. The declines range from 2.6% in San Diego to 9.3% in San Jose, with an above-average fall of 6% in San Francisco. As rents in San Jose and San Francisco have surged, retail and restaurants have felt the impact.

San Francisco and San Jose have particularly struggled with construction limits and rents, and they’ve consistently ranked as the bottom two metros in the economic average in each of the last three quarters. The other California metros had been doing better at times but dipped in performance heading into this quarter.

New Fast Growing Cities Emerge

Buffalo (NY) and Pittsburgh (PA) join Milwaukee (WI), Honolulu (HI), and Portland (ME) in the top five boomtowns this quarter, knocking out Louisville (KY) and Memphis (TN) from last quarter. Home services businesses have been among the strongest in all five of the top metros. Local factors also propelled these boomtowns to their success, including food trucks in Milwaukee, life coaches in Buffalo, junk removal in Honolulu, juice bars in Portland, and software developers in Pittsburgh.

Shopping and Lower-Priced Restaurants Gain Ground

While still below its level three years ago, retail gained ground for a second straight quarter. Stores selling items that shoppers might want to check out in person were among the gainers: sporting goods, appliances, hardware stores, antiques, furniture stores, and art galleries. Department stores and women’s clothing also advanced. Cellphones and computers, which previously lost business to online retail, made a bit of a comeback this quarter.

Lower-priced and stay-at-home options were among the strongest in the restaurants, food, and nightlife categories, while several types of upscale restaurants declined, indicating a shift toward value and eating in. The strongest types of food and drink businesses in the third quarter included chicken wings, pizza, and sandwiches; and grocery stores, delis, and stores selling beer, wine and spirits.

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Methodology

The Yelp Economic Average (YEA) is a composite measure of the economy, reflecting both business health and consumer demand among businesses in 30 sectors.

The 30 business sectors, or categories — the “Yelp 30″ — are drawn from eight umbrella business categories on Yelp: restaurants, food, nightlife, local services, automotive, professional services, home services, and shopping.