Barstow businesses survive the summer gas crunch

BARSTOW — Like many Americans, Barstow resident Esther Ortiz is worried about the economy this year.

“Gas is too expensive, food is too expensive, and there’s not a lot of work for the people,” she said.

But it didn’t stop her from hitting the outlet malls on Monday. Ortiz had to take her son back-to-school shopping, and while she was at it, she looked for some new clothes for her own wardrobe.

Susan Dufresne, who took her three kids to the Tanger Outlets Center was in a similar situation.

“I’m just trying to find a bargain,” she said.

Despite the tough economic times, locals are still shopping for school clothes, and out-of-towners are still heading to Las Vegas, stopping in Barstow along the way.

The Yermo Agricultural Inspection Station, which maintains traffic counts of vehicles coming through the station on southbound Interstate 15, reported a 29 percent increase in private vehicle traffic from last summer to this summer, despite gas prices approaching $5 for much of the season in 2008.

Jennifer Rodriguez, general manager of the Tanger Outlets Center, reported double-digit increases in both sales and traffic from last summer to this summer. She attributed part of the increase to new stores added to the outlet center’s mix in the past year, and part of it to Barstow’s strategic location on the interstates.

“We’re on a lifeline here of people going to and from Las Vegas, and people going to Vegas are not really concerned about the money in their pockets,” she said.

Marcia Bond, president of the Barstow Area Chamber of Commerce and general manager of the Hampton Inn and Suites, had a similar theory. Her own hotel saw a slow Labor Day weekend, but Bond said the summer overall was comparable to others she has seen in her years in the hotel business. Hotels in Barstow rely more on a steady clientele from the military bases and the railroad than they do on tourism, she said. Still, Bond believes the businesses that do cater to tourism are doing as well as ever.

“Regardless of economics, you’re always going to have people with disposable incomes,” she said. “They’re always going to go to the river, they’re always going to get fast food, they’re going to pay $5 for a gallon of gas ... Barstow will always be bathrooms and burgers, whether you want to admit it or not.”

Understanding Barstow’s strengths and playing them up is what will keep the economy afloat, Bond said.

Steven Kirkpatrick, an assistant manager at the Levi’s Outlet in the Barstow Outlets center, said that sales have been up this year, but the makeup of the clientele has changed. While less locals and Southern Californians have been buying jeans, the store has seen an upswing in foreign tourist traffic, he said.

“Last year we had a steady supply of people coming up from L.A., going to the river or going to Las Vegas,” he said.

This year, those weekend-trippers have been replaced by French and Australian tourists eager to stock up on Levi’s jeans, which would cost $90 to $100 in their home countries but only run them $30 or $40 in Barstow, Kirkpatrick said.

The new Chili’s restaurant, which held its grand opening August 21, has kept pace with expectations, said manager Mike Escalera. He declined to give the number of customers who showed up for the new restaurant’s opening.

“Compared to what we were expecting, we’re right on track to what we thought,” he said.

Escalera estimated that the crowds have been made up of about 60 percent local patrons to 40 percent tourists.

The city of Barstow budgeted for a little more than $6 million in sales tax revenues for the 2007/08 fiscal year. The actual sales tax revenues for the year fell just $84,194 short. The city did not return calls Friday seeking statistics on the city’s sales tax revenues for the first two quarters of 2008 compared to the first two quarters of 2007, as an indicator of the level of local commerce.

Traffic count on southbound I-15 at the Yermo Agriculture Inspection Station

2007
June: 488,092
July: 602,197
August: 532,420

2008
June: 539,131
July: 784,426
August: 768,804

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or abby_sewell@link.freedom.com