South Coast Plaza’s fourth-quarter sales went down about 18 percent from $420 million in 2007 to $344 million in 2008, according to sales tax data recently provided by the city of Costa Mesa.
The area surveyed included 306 South Coast Plaza businesses with the 3333 Bristol St. and 3333 Bear St. addresses. The city does not provide a breakdown of its sales tax revenue by individual businesses.
South Coast Plaza is clearly a driving force in the city’s revenue. Although it accounts for about 2.6 percent of the city’s 11,796 businesses, about 36 percent of the city’s revenue came from the shopping center during the fourth quarters in 2007 and in 2008.
(Throughout non-holiday quarters in 2007-08, sales at South Coast Plaza contributed 27-30 percent of Costa Mesa’s sales tax revenue.)
Note: South Coast Plaza, which is privately owned, does not share its sales figures. These numbers were derived by sales tax revenue data provided by the city of Costa Mesa. When a consumer pays 7.75 cents of sales tax on the dollar, the city receives 1 cent. The remaining 6.75 cents go to the state of California and other agencies.
More on Economy from the South Coast Plaza blog:
For more on South Coast Plaza, see list of links on right-hand side of this blog.
I wonder why all the merchants insist that they are “doing fine” and sales are still strong? Something does not add up.
I love this blog. It is the best on the ‘net
And this is big news?
Makes a lot of sense. Whenever I buzz in to South Coast for something, the parking lots all seem emptier and the mall seems sparsely populated compared to recent years. Things have changed in the look and feel of the mall, and now these sales statistics prove it. Thanks for the info!