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Fay Dorsett
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First 1997 Economic Census Retail Report Shows
Wyoming with Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order
Retail Sales Hitting $102 Million
Wyoming's 29 electronic shopping and mail-order establishments sold $102
million in merchandise in 1997 -- about 2 percent of the state's total of
$4.5 billion in retail sales, according to the first in a series of state
reports on retail sales from the 1997 Economic Census released today by
the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.
The bulk of sales by Wyoming's electronic shopping and mail-order firms
were in the Cheyenne metropolitan area, with a total of $84.8 million.
Statewide, electronic shopping and mail-order firms employed 554 people,
according to the report, 1997 Economic Census, Geographic Area Series,
Retail Trade: Wyoming.
Three of the largest retail industries in the state in 1997 sales were
new car dealers ($898.6 million); supermarkets and other grocery stores,
excluding convenience stores ($677.5 million); and department stores,
excluding leased departments ($516.2 million).
Supermarkets and department stores were also large employers, with 4,118
and 3,947 employees at 124 and 29 locations, respectively.
Another retail industry, computer and software stores, had sales of
$36.7 million and employed 177 people at 31 locations statewide. Overall,
Wyoming's 2,939 retail trade establishments employed 26,934 people.
The 1997 Economic Census marks the premiere of a new classification
system called the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS),
which replaces the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system begun
60 years ago.
"The United States developed the system jointly with Canada and Mexico,
making it much easier to compare data with our North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) partners," said Frederick Knickerbocker, the Census
Bureau's associate director for economic programs. "It is also a system
that is much easier to update, so that economic data can keep pace with
the nation's changing economy."
The NAICS Retail Trade sector includes much of what was classified in
retail trade under the SIC system. But NAICS excludes from this sector
eating and drinking places and mobile food services (which are now in the
Accommodation and Food Services sector), pawn shops (which are now in the
Finance and Insurance sector) and bakeries (which are now in the
Manufacturing sector). Under NAICS, the Retail Trade sector includes
establishments which were previously classified in Wholesale Trade that
sell merchandise using facilities open to the general public. Prominent
examples of these establishments are automotive supplies dealers, computer
and peripheral equipment merchants, office supplies dealers, farm supplies
dealers and building material dealers.
All data compiled for the Retail Trade sector are subject to nonsampling
errors. Nonsampling errors can be attributed to many sources: inability to
identify all cases in the actual universe; definition and classification
difficulties; differences in the interpretation of questions; errors in
recording or coding the data obtained; and other errors of collection,
response, coverage, processing and estimation for missing or misreported
data.
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The U.S. Census Bureau, pre-eminent collector and disseminator of timely,
relevant and quality data about the people and the economy of the United
States, conducts a population and housing census every 10 years, an
economic census every five years and more than 100 demographic and
economic surveys every year, all of them evolving from the first census in
1790.
