At the Crossroads of Green Acres and Midlife Junction

A little over a week ago, I attended a meeting where the results of a Market Study of downtown Le Mars, conducted by Downtown Professionals Network under the auspices of Main Street Iowa were revealed. Thanks to a grant, Le Mars was one of only seven communities in the state to have this market study done.

The study examined retail shopping trends within a five, 10 and 20 minute drive from the center of downtown, the intersection of Central and Plymouth. Using business classification codes from tax reports, the study showed that by and large things are good here in Le Mars. In many of the business categories, we are strong. In a few we could use some improvement, or some additional businesses offering similar merchandise.

The 30 page report and 36 page appendix contain a wealth of information, and respondents were asked about shopping habits, what they would like to see in downtown, whether they would consider living downtown and where they received their information about what was going on in Le Mars.

The authors of the study also used information from ESRI to paint a demographic profile of Le Mars. They used information from the U.S. Census bureau about population, households, housing, age and race to paint a "tapestry" of the area. The company calls this a psychographic profile, and they have studied this information to create 65 different segments of people.

The market study indicated that the Le Mars area has seven different predominant household segments. Each segment has its own name, as well as demographic, and socioeconomic information, as well as information about housing and lifestyles. Each is also given its own name to describe it as well. The groups that comprise the tapestry of the Le Mars area are: Green Acres, Midlife Junction, Simple Living, Crossroads, Great Expectations, Salt of the Earth and Prairie Living.

Sounds like a mix of novels and sitcoms.

Demographers like to put everyone into categories, and when I heard this portion of the presentation, I was intrigued. What "box" did I fit in?

Green Acres is the third largest of all community tapestry markets, more than 3 percent of the population in the nation. The same is true of the Le Mars area. Green Acres are married, either with or without children. The median age is 40.6 years. Country living describes the lifestyle, with green acres residents having pets, working on their homes and yards. They watch satellite TV, listen to talk radio and college football and watch the Speed Channel.

Really? They can determine that 3 percent of the nation's population like to watch the Speed Channel?

Midlife Junction, the second largest population segment in the Le Mars tapestry, are phasing out of their child rearing years. Median age is 41.1 years. Half of the households are married couples, 31 percent are single person households. They are planning for and easing into retirement, and are watching their spending. They enjoy yoga, attending country music concerts, auto races, refinishing furniture, reading romance novels and watching classic movies on DVD.

Simple Living, the third largest population segment, is a mix of young families (32 percent) and senior citizens (32 percent). Since income is tight, their luxury item is cable TV. Most households do not place a high importance on owning a personal computer, DVD player or cellular phone.

Crossroads ranks fourth in Le Mars. These neighborhoods have married couple families and single parent families. Median age is 32. They shop at discount department stores. They do maintenance on their own vehicles and like to go to the movies. Pets, especially birds, are popular.

Very random, very specific.

Prairie Living households like trucks, are conservative and participate on church and school boards. Great Expectations are young singles and married couple families who like rock music, courtroom dramas and reality TV. Salt of the Earth are married couples with and without children who like to watch horse racing, auto racing and truck and tractor pulls on TV. Their favorite sitcom is According to Jim.

I kid you not.

I didn't really find my "box," but I think this type of demographic information can be helpful to merchants and community planners.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.