ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 21, 1995                   TAG: 9507210074
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PARKS LANIER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SPENDING TRENDS

RETAIL ANALYST Ken Gassman of Davenport & Co., Richmond, recently paid Southwest Virginia a compliment that should not go unthanked. In a WVTF-FM report, newsman Jay O'Neal quoted Gassman as saying "the regional economies across Virginia are so diverse it is possible to use the state to predict consumer spending trends across the entire country." One of the significant economies Gassman identified, to the region's credit, is that of Southwest Virginia.

In its spending trends, Southwest Virginia, according to Gass-man, "reflects blue-collar regions like the Northeast and the Midwestern industrial farming states." Northern Virginia, on the other hand, is a good indicator of what is occurring in the "upscale consumer trends of metros like Chicago, New York and San Francisco." To know what is happening or likely to happen in St. Louis, one has only to count people, cars and packages in a Richmond mall, home of the "mass-market consumer."

The mass-market, upscale and blue-collar consumers compose the three economic regions of Virginia and of the country, as Gassman sees things. Southwest Virginia, I think, should be proud to have been linked to the heartland of America, the land we heard so much about when hearts were stopped in Oklahoma City during weeks of anguish and suspense. "Blue collar" is perhaps not the best term for Gassman to have chosen, but (Jeff Foxworthy notwithstanding) it is better than "redneck." Still, it lacks some of the approval inherent in "upscale" and "mass-market," and smacks of Archie Bunker if not L'il Abner.

Gassman deserves to be complimented for knowing that Virginia does not stop at Monticello. On the telephone, he spoke familiarly to me of "the I-77 corridor and west" as defining his notion of Southwest Virginia. He spoke of Bristol, Norton, Coeburn, Haysi and Big Stone Gap as easily as New York or Chicago. He trusts shoppers in these Virginia towns to tell him what is going on in Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Nebraska.

Folks in Dayton, Indianapolis, Des Moines and Omaha should be happy in their Southwest Virginia prophets. They may not know much about our Appalachian region, and what they know is likely to be skewed by the "Deliverance" syndrome. But if I lived in Des Moines, I might be a little uneasy thinking a mall shopper in Alexandria or Richmond was giving retail analysts tips about what ought to be under my Christmas tree. Iowans deserve to have confidence in the Galax and Abingdon shoppers observed by Gassman.

None of us can be completely immune to the merchandising of the Pocahontas trinkets, the Congo ape watches, or the Batman and Robin paraphernalia. These sorts of things ride the television waves across all boundaries of all economic regions. It is comforting, however, that an analyst like Gassman still believes there is something unique enough about Appalachian Southwest Virginia to set it apart.

Perhaps by counting shoppers and packages - or the lack of them - in Coeburn, retail analysts will also figure out who goes for substance and value and who is conned by glitz and glitter. I like to think that in the heartland of Virginia, as in America, the hearts are sound.

Parks Lanier is a member of the Appalachian Studies faculty at Radford University. 


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