Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 25, 1994 TAG: 9412220047
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The growth apparently was spurred by a drop in the price of computer hardware, accompanied by a corresponding increase in the ability of computers to do the work people wanted.
The downside, according to Stan Cross of Holdren's Inc. in Roanoke, is that the competition in computer retailing is so stiff now that profit margins are "razor thin."
The Commerce Department, issuing the Virginia portion of its five-year census of retail trade, reported that sales of all products in Virginia between 1987 and 1992 - a period that included a nationwide recession - were up by a more modest 23 percent. That compared with a 27 percent increase nationwide.
In 1992, the agency said, Virginia's 37,360 retailers of all kinds had total sales of $48 billion. One Virginia county, Fairfax, accounted for 15 percent of the total, or $7.2 billion. Virginia Beach was a distant second with retail sales of $2.9 billion, or 6.1 percent of the state total.
Grocery stores had the highest sales among all retailers in 1992 - $9.6 billion, an increase of 23 percent over 1987. Virginia's new-car dealers were second with sales of $8.3 billion, and department stores third at $4.3 billion.
Grocery stores also had the most retail employees: 73,365. That was a 6 percent increase from the previous retail census five years earlier.
Although 1992 is the latest year for which the Commerce Department provided figures, the explosion in computer sales apparently is continuing. Cross said Holdren's got into the computer business four years ago, and the company's sales have increased 300 percent in that time.
He attributed the increase to a combination of factors, including a drop in the price of computers, improvements in computer performance, the availability of more computer software and the fact that computers are becoming more user friendly.
Sales of multimedia computers that use software on compact discs to provide better quality graphics and sound have really taken off, Cross said.
Nick Wood, who handles small-business accounts for CCS Data Station in Christiansburg, said the growing company does not stress computer sales to individuals because of the small profit margin involved.
"Anybody getting into the retail market right now is mad," he said.
Wood said CCS concentrates on sales to small businesses. Sales have been phenomenal as small businesses are finding it affordable to automate with computers that provide eight times the performance at a fifth the cost of those from a few years back.
Sales are growing at 50 percent a year, he said.
by CNB