By Tina Fisher Cunningham
Fisher Forde Media
Tehachapi aims to capture $158 million in retail trade leakage
The Forde Files No 135
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Tina Fisher Cunningham
Retail leakage happens when residents go to Bakersfield or Lancaster/Palmdale to shop instead of shopping in Tehachapi.
Tehachapi Economic Development Coordinator Michelle Vance is on a mission to turn that around, to keep the money in Tehachapi and to draw shoppers up the hill to make their purchases.
"One hundred fifty-eight million dollars leave our town every year," Vance told the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council on Nov. 2 at the Tehachapi Police Department community room.
Stores in Tehachapi already attract out-of-town shoppers.
"Tractor Supply has customers from Bishop," Vance said.
Officially, retail leakage indicates that potential retail sales are greater than actual retail sales for the trade area.
Her research on retail demographics shows what kinds of new stores would do well in Tehachapi and how much is lost to leakage when customers go out of town to make their purchases – from $47 million in the automotive category to $9 million for food and beverages. Other retail categories that suffer leakage include apparel and accessories, health and personal care, general merchandise, furniture, electronics and appliances, gas stations and miscellaneous stores like florists, stationary and gifts.
Vance showed that Tehachapi's trade area within a radius of 100 miles (approximately a two-hour drive) represents a population of 15.6 million people. By contrast, Bakersfield's trade area of the same size represents a population of 7.23 million.
The population and source of customers closer to home – in Tehachapi, Mojave, California City and Rosamond – is 80,781.
She said the future Red Apple Pavilion at the corner of Tucker Road and Red Apple Ave. will be a "power center," but no anchor store has been announced.
Vance said that the empty bank building at Green and F streets has been purchased and will be a Stray Leaves Vineyard tasting room and winery, and that the Masonic Lodge building next to the Loop Newspaper on Green Street also has been sold.
United Farm Worker - Tehachapi connection
Tina Fisher Cunningham
Patrick Pine
Patrick Pine’s job as administrator of the United Farm Workers Union (UFW) medical and pension plans is a linguist’s challenge.
Speaking to the Kiwanis Club of Tehachapi Nov. 9 at Don Joan’s Grill, Pine said that the cultural demographics of farm workers is changing, and that he needs to translate documents into six languages. He said that at Foster Farms, as an example, 50 percent of the employees speak Spanish, 25 percent are Sikhs who speak Punjabi, 10 percent are Hmong, 10 percent are Filipino who speak other than the main Philippine language of Tagalog and others are Portuguese, some of whom hail from Brazil.
He said that working the berry fields are tribal people from Mexico and Central America who do not speak Spanish and who have only oral traditions.
“As the folks become more established, they migrate into higher positions, often into construction,” Pine said. “It is harder to find farm workers.”
Pine works at La Paz, the United Farm Workers compound in Keene. There are three organizations at La Paz – the UFW, with 20 employees; the Cesar Chavez Foundation, which owns a radio network, operates housing programs in California, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico, manages the Villa La Paz Conference Center and Keene Café and manages the Chavez Museum and memorial grounds jointly with the National Park Service; and his office, which manages the Robert F. Kennedy Medical Plan and Juan De La Cruz Pension Plan with Pine and a staff of 13.
He said there are close ties between Tehachapi and the Foundation, including Chavez family members who live in Tehachapi and attend local schools. The memorial for Chavez’s widow Helen was held in June at St. Malachy Catholic Church in Tehachapi.
