St. Cloud and Central Minnesota continues to thrive as one of the fastest growing regions in the state.  It is a growth market with its diverse business base including manufacturing, health care, retail, printing, food services, and marketing and fulfillment companies.  This healthy economic trend is proven in such diverse areas as three new area golf courses, a recently renovated arts district in downtown and several new national-chain retailers and restaurants now calling St. Cloud home.

The Stearns-Benton MSA boasts annual retail sales of $2,85 billion in 2006.  The MSA population grew by 24.6% since 1990 and the number of households grew by nearly 20,000.

St. Cloud and Central Minnesota provides a stable base from which to build your business success.  Active, educated, young and ready, willing and able to buy your products and services.  With stable incomes, family values, diversity, and youthfullness -- over 29% of the adults in the market are between the ages of 18-34 -- the St. Cloud market delivers a lucrative audience to build a solid business.

                              St. Cloud                  St. Cloud Metro         Trade Area

Population          65,792                          96,899                       158,854

RETAIL -- THE NUMBERS SHOW THE POTENTIAL

The St. Cloud Downtown Council hired the Buxton Company in 2008 to do an analysis for possible retail development or revitalization.  In the report, Buxton performed the following analysis: • A 5-minute, workplace drive-time trade area was delineated for the site • A 12-minute, residential drive-time trade area was delineated for the site • The customers in each trade area were segmented according to buying habits and lifestyles • A profile of St. Cloud’s customers within each of the trade areas was developed • The surplus and leakage for more than 36 product types and 74 store types was determined for the residential trade area The purpose of these analyses is to develop St. Cloud’s Customer Profile. The Customer Profile is a snapshot of the customers that reside and work in St. Cloud’s trade areas. Even though these consumers are complex and diverse, Buxton is able to capture and catalogue the extent to which potential demand for a retailer’s goods and services are being met within the trade area.

2009 Retail Assessment