research analysis and inventory of businesses

Research Analysis & Inventory of

Businesses:

MainStreet Oceanside

Prepared for: Rick Wright

Gumaro Escarcega

Prepared by: Chelsey Beeson Connor Olson

Jeremy Christopherson Mark Nachman

Zachary McKinley

Deliverable: May 8th, 2013

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Table Of Contents Page Number

Executive Summary……………………………………. 2

Introduction………………………………………………. 3

Research Questions…………………………………….. 3

Background……………………………………………….. 4

Methodology……………………………………………… 4

Limitations………………………………………………… 6

Results……………………………………………………… 7

Recommendations………………………………………. 28

Appendix…………………………………………………… 34

Executive Summary

The following report details the market analysis of businesses in the downtown

Oceanside district that fall within Main Street Oceanside’s district. Market analysis of various

industries was necessary to identify the types of clusters and leakages of businesses in the

downtown area. Qualitative data was gathered from managers of businesses in the form of

surveys. Surveys were developed and administered by group members. Major challenges the

district faces were analyzed in this report as well. Main Street Oceanside will use the findings of

this report to increase the economic vitality of the district.

Final Recommendations and findings:

Research and analysis of the data gathered suggest that there are currently problems

concerning availability of parking, a strong transient/homeless population, current awareness of

MainStreet Oceanside, as well as a need for an increase in retail business throughout the district.

The availability of parking can be improved through cooperative efforts with other Oceanside

organizations through fundraising. Decreasing the vagrant population can be solved by limiting

the number of organizations that offer services for the homeless throughout the district.

Awareness of the organization can be improved through an increased social media

presence/community as well as face to face interaction with business owners in the area. The

need for an increase in retail businesses in the district can be fulfilled through efforts in reaching

out to current or new retail businesses to fill the vacant buildings throughout the district. Further

information, data, and analysis supporting the findings and recommendations are described in

depth in the following report.

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Introduction

Downtown Oceanside was constructed in the 1890’s. With the development of Marine

Corps Base Camp Pendleton in 1942, civilians as well as military personnel living in, and

visiting the Oceanside area embraced periods of great affluence. Today’s Oceanside is not

accustomed to the economic prosperity ushered in post WWII. Gang violence and economic

downturn have strongly affected the once thriving downtown community. Main Street Oceanside

is committed to improving the economic vitality of the downtown quarter and restoring the

unblemished reputation Oceanside once held.

The purpose of this report is to identify major challenges businesses in Main Street

Oceanside district face, as well as to identify the major clusters and leakages for various

industries.

Research Questions 1) How do businesses first learn about MainStreet? 2) How do businesses rate their awareness of the services offered by MainStreet? 3) How do businesses rate the current volume of foot traffic in the Downtown area? 4) Overall, how satisfied are businesses with the economic vitality of the district? 5) Do businesses believe that the district as a whole will improve over the next five years? 6) What aspects of the Downtown district contribute most to overall dissatisfaction in being located in Oceanside? 7) How do the various elements of businesses relate to their overall satisfaction of the Downtown area? 8) What type of clusters and leakages exist in the Downtown district?

Background

MainStreet Oceanside works with businesses and people that reside in Oceanside, and

advocate for positive growth to enrich the community and improve the quality of life for

residents and visitors of the downtown area. MainStreet follows a comprehensive four-point

approach that consists of the following Committees; Design, Promotions, Organization, and

Economic Restructuring. These Committees create goals and strategies to help improve the

downtown district. Market analysis is necessary in order to identify clusters and leakages in the

downtown district so MainStreet can get a better idea of what types of companies it needs to

cater to.

Methodology

Survey research is a critical component in both descriptive and applied research studies.

The following report will provide the reader with insight as to how data was collected,

researched, and organized for the project. The objective of this research study is to develop a

market analysis of the clusters and leakages that exist within the downtown Oceanside district.

Furthermore, MainStreet Oceanside (Sponsor) would like the research to identify the various

challenges faced by the district as they pertain to the economic vitality of downtown Oceanside.

Data Collection:

During the early stages of the group project the team, along with MainStreet Oceanside,

determined that the primary source for gathering data would involve exploratory research and

developing a survey to be administered in person among the various businesses within the

downtown Oceanside district. In order to obtain the best quantitative data possible, the team,

along with the sponsor, generated a survey with questions that were designed specifically to

assist in providing answers and possible solutions for the given problem statement. Qualitative

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data was also collected during this research which helped with understanding and deciphering

the information that was received. In an attempt to locate the clusters and leakages in the

district, team members interviewed and obtained information and opinions from the business

owners and managers in the district.

Data Analysis:

The collected data was entered into Excel and SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social

Sciences). This software was used due to its versatility and capabilities, which include variables

such as descriptive analysis, linear regression, factor analysis, and cluster analysis, which is a

key component to the study. SPSS offers a simple two-dimensional table structure in which

rows represent the various businesses, and the columns represent the measurement given by the

survey taker. Upon reviewing the combined survey results and deciphering through the

interview data, the findings will be communicated to Main Street Oceanside and

recommendations will be made with the intent of furthering their best interests.

Strengths & Weaknesses:

In determining the best method to go about the research project, it was agreed upon that

distributing a survey among the business community would be an effective strategy to measure

the strengths and weaknesses within the business district. The use of a survey does however

have its limits. They are only capable of providing an estimate for the population or area that is

being researched instead of a definitive measurement. The accuracy of survey research also

relies on honesty and objectiveness from the participant. Since the focus of this project is to

improve the economic vitality that these business owners operate in, it is believed that dishonesty

and biased responses on their behalf would not be an issue as it is to their advantage to

participate and be involved in a study that entails their business community.

The advantages associated with the use of a survey include, the capability to gather

information from large populations, as well as obtaining quantifiable data as it relates to the

designed survey questions. This data can also provide insight about attitudes which are nearly

impossible to measure through observation or other methods. Surveys can also be replicated in

the future to assess any changes that may have taken place. It was determined that the

advantages of using a survey outweighed the disadvantages and this would be a primary focus

and tool that would be used to develop the data.

Limitations Factors that were detrimental to the project were not experienced; however several

uncontrollable factors that have some degree of effect on the quality of the research did come

about. Access to the proper sources, subjectivity, time, and target groups surveyed each had

their own respective influence on the research.

One of the guidelines of the survey requires that only a business owner or manager take

part in the survey research. Even though the team covered the district on many occasions, a

valid candidate could not be located and surveyed at many of the businesses, thus giving a lower

response rate than originally projected. Time management was a minor limitation as each

industry has a different down or slow time in which owners/managers are available to participate

in a survey and possibly be interviewed. For example, in the restaurant industry it is best to

arrive between 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. to talk to owners while other industries like retailers and

service organizations are likely to be busy around that time of day. Coordinating the schedule of

the given industry with those of the individual team members proved to be challenging, however

it was overcome by splitting into teams based on availability and many repeated trips to the

district.

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Awareness of the district’s needs as an entirety could produce mixed responses among

the various industries in the district. This type of research is very subjective in nature and it is

possible to arrive at different forecasts with different samples of the same population. This

example can be seen with the difference in response rates between the service industry and the

retailers in the district as it pertains to their level of satisfaction with the economic vitality in the

district. The service industry recorded an average satisfaction level of 4.93 out of 7 while

retailers were significantly less satisfied at 3.57. Many other examples like this can be found in

the analysis portion of the essay, which support the claim that subjectivity, opinions, and beliefs

differ amongst the various industries within the same small district. There were approximately

10-15 organizations that simply were not willing or did not desire to take part in the study.

One final limitation to mention is the fact that the results from the survey reflect only the

views and opinions of the various businesses in the district and not the views of the district as a

whole. Residential housing occupies approximately 25% of the district’s boundaries, and for the

purpose of this research residential housing was only recognized for inventory purposes and was

not included in the survey research study.

Results

All the conclusion in this section were drawn form the information the team gathered

through the inventory process, in-depth interviews, and the survey we administered to business

owners or managers. The analysis derived from the survey data was run through IBM’s SPSS

Statistics software program and Microsoft’s Excel.

Research Question 1: How do businesses first learn about MainStreet? To begin our analysis we first wanted to gauge the business owners overall awareness of

MainStreet Oceanside. We accomplished this through the survey we administered to owners and

managers of the businesses in the downtown district. In the survey, owners were asked how they

first learned about MainStreet Oceanside. The goal of this research question is to obtain

knowledge of how people have heard of the organization, as well as to learn which method had

been the most effective in gaining awareness from business owners.

Figure 1-‐1: How businesses first learned about MainStreet

In question 2 of the survey we provided the respondents with six options to choose from

with regards to how they first learned about MainStreet Oceanside. We used an ordinal scale for

this question, with the value directly preceding the response option: word of mouth (0), walk-in

(1), direct contact (2), online search engine (3), not applicable (4), and other (5). The results

showed an array of responses as to how business owners first learned about MainStreet

Oceanside. The most frequent response (as shown in Figure 1) was through word of mouth (0),

which accounts for 25% of businesses surveyed in the downtown district. Typically, it is very

difficult to get people talking about your business or organization. The fact that people are

16

12 14

0

10

7

0

5

10

15

20

Word of Mouth

Walk-‐in Direct Contact

Online Search Engine

Not Applicable

Other

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talking about MainStreet Oceanside, and hearing about it from neighboring business or fellow

business owners is definitely one positive that MainStreet can take advantage of down the road.

Following word of mouth, the second most frequent way businesses have first learned

about MainStreet Oceanside was through direct contact (2), which accounted for 21.9% of the

businesses surveyed. The results show that 18.75% of businesses in the downtown district have

learned about the organization through a walk-in (1). Furthermore, 15.63% of the businesses that

took the survey answered not applicable (4), along with 12.5% answering other, and the

remaining did not fill out the question.

We can attribute a slight degree of sampling error to this question as many respondents

who answered other (5), filled in the name of ‘Rick Wright’ or wrote ‘The Sunset Market’.

These responses skew the result as the answer ‘Rick Wright’ could literally mean anything. Mr.

Wright could have walked into the business, directly contacted them, or they could have heard

his name and knew it was in association with MainStreet Oceanside. Moreover, the written

answer of ‘The Sunset Market’ is too vague to derive accurate analytics.

Research Question 2: How do businesses rate their awareness of the services offered by MainStreet? For Research Question 2 we wanted to see how aware business owners are of the services

MainStreet Oceanside offers. To get the most information out of this question we broke down the

analysis into three parts; overall data, members, and non-members. This way it will give us a

general consensus of the downtown district as a whole. We will also be able to identify and

measure the level of awareness of non-members to see if a lack of knowledge is a reason they are

not members or vice versa. Moreover, we can see how effective MainStreet Oceanside has been

in communicating with their members what services they offer. In this question we used a scale

ranging from not aware with a value of (0) to extremely aware with a value of (4).

Table 2-‐1 – Overall Awareness of Services Data

Question 3 Mean Median Mode

Awareness of services 1.229 1 0

As seen in Table 2-1, the average (or mean) awareness of the overall downtown district

of the services offered by MainStreet Oceanside is 1.229, which is in between slightly aware (1)

and moderately aware (2). The mode or most answered response was not aware (0). In fact, a

staggering 37.5% of overall business owners are completely unaware of the services offered by

MainStreet Oceanside.

This result came to no surprise to us after walking the streets and briefly talking with

various business owners or managers during the surveying and inventory process. During this

process, many of the businesses that we walked into were completely unaware of the existence of

MainStreet Oceanside. The businesses that were completely unaware required a brief explanation

from our team about who MainStreet Oceanside is and what they do. The survey results from

Research Question 1 don’t necessarily coincide with our qualitative findings, but the awareness

levels of the services offered indicate there could be some work done to raise the overall

awareness of the organization throughout the downtown district.

Table 2-2 – Member Awareness of Services Data



To break down Research Question #2 further, we analyzed the survey results on a

member and non-member basis. In table 2.2, we found the members of MainStreet Oceanside on

average are between moderately aware (2) and aware (3), based on the result of the 2.667 mean

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calculated. The most frequent response for this question by members of MainStreet Oceanside

was aware (3), which accounts for 35.71% of the members overall. This comes at a relief and

indicates there is a good level of communication with the members and the organization. To

prove this point furthermore, none of the respondents we surveyed that are members answered

not aware (0).

Figure 2-‐2 – Non-‐Member Awareness of Services

The average response from non-members was 0.88, which is between not aware (0) and

slightly aware (1). The majority of respondents under this break down are not aware of the

services offered by MainStreet Oceanside, which is 48% of non-members. However, upon

further analysis we found that of the 48% of non-members who answered not aware (0), 33.3%

of them answered not applicable in the question regarding how they first learned about

MainStreet Oceanside. In addition, 16.6% of the respondents who answered not aware in

question 3 of the survey, found out about MainStreet Oceanside through word of mouth and

12.5% answered other. This accounts for 62.4% of non-member respondents who are not aware

24

12 9

3 1

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Not Aware Slightly Aware Moderately Aware

Aware Extremely Aware

of the services MainStreet Oceanside offers. Given their answers to the first question; word of

mouth, not applicable, and other indicates that there has been no direct or physical contact with

MainStreet Oceanside and the business owners. Word of mouth implies respondents heard about

the organization through a fellow business owner or a neighboring business, and not applicable

means they haven’t heard about the organization. We can see a direct connection as to why non-

members are not aware of the services offered, because they have had no direct contact with

MainStreet Oceanside.

While MainStreet Oceanside has not directly contacted these particular businesses, there

are some positive points to be gained from these results. MainStreet has the opportunity to build

awareness with business owners throughout the downtown district. In the results from the overall

data, including members and non-members, those who answered either moderately aware,

aware, or extremely aware indicated they learned about MainStreet Oceanside via walk-in, or

direct contact. With this information, one may gather that the best way to increase overall

awareness and the awareness of the services offered is through contacting the businesses by

walking door to door, by phone, or email.

Research Question 3: How do businesses rate the current volume of foot traffic

in the Downtown area?

In Research Question 3 we felt it would be beneficial for MainStreet to receive some

information regarding how businesses rate with overall volume of foot traffic in the downtown

district. For this research question, two approaches were taken in regards to data collection.

Quantitative data was gathered through the survey gaining concrete information about the

businesses overall perspective on the volume of foot traffic. In addition, a qualitative approach

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was taken with business owners who were willing to sit down for an in-depth interview. The

results for the quantitative part of the research question are the following.

Table 3 – Volume of Foot Traffic


Foot Traffic Volume 4.2619 4 4

The results of the analysis regarding the current volume of foot traffic in the downtown

district show the average response of business owners was just shy of the middle with a mean of

4.2619. We used an ordinal scale for the analysis of this survey question starting at Extremely

Dissatisfied with a value of (1) to Extremely Satisfied with a value of (7). We chose to scale the

survey question under this format so we could obtain a broader range of responses. In addition,

an odd-numbered format would contain a neutral or medium value, which holds a value of (4).

This proved to be a good scaling technique as we found the most frequent response was the

neutral value of (4). This indicates business owners are relatively indifferent about how much

foot traffic is circulating through the downtown district. It is difficult to draw conclusions solely

from the survey question, however, additional information collected with qualitative data and in-

depth interviews helped better assess business owners’ opinions about Research Question 3.

Throughout the inventory and surveying process, some business owners were eager to

share their thoughts with us and were willing to take time out of their day to talk to us. Please

note we only conducted interviews with companies in the industries of retail, restaurant,

hospitality, automotive services, and services. One question we always presented in verbal

conversation with business owners involved their feelings about traffic coming into their door or

passing through the front of their stores. Some of the responses we got may shed some additional

light to this particular research question.

Of the handful of owners we talked to, most of them said it wasn’t necessarily the volume

of foot traffic that is the problem, but the type of foot traffic that passes through the downtown

district. This type of foot traffic isn’t the type that generates business. One business owner who

asked to remain anonymous stated, “I have gangster looking hoodlums and drug dealers loitering

in front and passing by my store on a daily basis.” He continued to mention these types of

individuals are more of a problem on the days of The Farmer’s Market and Sunset Market. Most

of the other owners shared a similar concern with traffic issues ranging from homeless people

walking the streets or sleeping under their store’s overhang, to skateboarders loitering outside of

their stores and ultimately disrupting potential business.

What this additional data tells us in regards to the survey question asked is that there

could have been some indifference with the respondent (not really knowing how to answer this

question etc.). While most physical visits to the businesses in the district took place during what

was considered “slow hours,” personal observations showed there was a significant amount of

people circulating through the streets. It was conveyed by business owners that numerous

individuals didn’t seem to have intentions of going into their stores. Thus, in addition to these

findings in the qualitative research, we can attribute some of the indifference in the survey

question to the actual traffic not aligning with the ideal consumer.

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Research Question 4: Overall, how satisfied are businesses with the economic

vitality of the district?

Figure 4-1

Businesses satisfaction levels with the current economic vitality of the downtown district

show that the average response of the businesses was near the middle of the seven-point scale

used, at 4.24. The scale used started with Extremely Dissatisfied, issued a value of (1), and ended

to Extremely Satisfied with a value of (7). This average suggests that as a whole, the businesses

in the downtown district are not entirely dissatisfied, nor entirely satisfied with the current

economic state of the district. The red bar in Figure 4-1 above shows the average level of

satisfaction of each category using the scale described. The blue bar represents the lower level of

confidence used and the green bar represents our upper level of confidence used. Both levels of

confidence are based off of a 95% level of confidence, which helps portray that the true

3.83 3.56 3.71

4.24 4.43 4.19

4.66

5.29

4.66

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Total Members Non-‐Members

Lower Confidence Limit Mean Upper Confidence Limit

population mean is between our lower and upper confidence levels based off of our surveyed

population.

After further analysis, our data shows us that the average level of satisfaction of members

was roughly .241 higher than the average response of non-members. When compared statistically

in a correlations test in our data analysis software, there is a sigma of .723, which shows us that

at an alpha level of 0.05, we are 95% positive that there is no statistically significant relationship

between members and non-members responses to the survey question concerning the current

economic vitality of the district. This means that there is no statistically significant difference

between the average response of a member and a non-member when compared to their

satisfaction levels of the current economic vitality of the district.

Figure 4-2

2.71 2.42

4.21

2.99

3.57 3.88

4.93

4.00

4.44

5.33 5.66

5.01

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Retail Restaurants Services Automo[ve


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When looking at the different industry’s perspectives of the economic vitality of the

downtown district in Figure 4-2, we see that service industries show the most positive levels of

satisfaction at an average of 4.93 and that retailers show the most negative levels of satisfaction

at an average of 3.57. This data could be derived from the fact that the service businesses in the

area are possibly more geared towards the clientele of the downtown district than the retail

locations. This could also be due to the high volume of barbershops and dry cleaners that have

been established to serve the high volume of customers from the military community of Camp

Pendleton.

Research Question 5: Do businesses believe that the district as a whole will

improve over the next five years?

Figure 5-‐1

According to the data collected, the average businesses in the downtown district are at a

neutral level of agreement with a slight tendency to agree with the statement, “As a whole, the

3.23% 2.08%

9.68% 7.14%

10.42%

29.03%

14.29%

33.33%

38.71% 35.71%

39.58%

0.193548

0.145833

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%


Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

downtown district will improve over the next five years.” On the following ordinal scale: (0)

Strongly Agree, (1) Disagree, (2) Neutral, (3) Agree, (4) Strongly Agree, the average from all

surveyed businesses was a 2.65. This shows that the average business would either be neutral or

slightly agree that the district will improve over the next five years. Furthermore, with a 95%

confidence level we can say that the true population-mean of the businesses in the downtown

district is between 2.35 and 2.94, which shows that on average businesses in the downtown

district would agree or be neutral to the statement listed.

There were several interesting findings in the analysis concerning the frequencies of the

answers within each industry. Approximately half of the businesses surveyed from the retail

industry responded neutrally when asked about their opinions on the improvement of the

downtown district. This shows that there is a lot of uncertainty among the retail businesses on

whether or not the district will change over the next five years, which is parallel with the industry

average. Another interesting fact that stood out was that 9 out of the 17 service industries

surveyed said that they agreed that the downtown district would improve over the next five

years. This is a positive sign for the service industry within the district that more than 50% of the

industry believes that the district will improve over the next five years.

Through further analysis our team has also come to conclusions on several correlations

concerning the improvement of the downtown district. First, at an alpha level of 0.05, we are

95% confident that there is a statistically correlation between the current satisfaction with the

amount of foot traffic in the district and the level in which the businesses agree that the district

will improve over the next five years. There is a correlation coefficient of 0.33, which shows us

that there is a moderate correlation between the two. This means that as the businesses become

more satisfied with the current level of foot traffic, they will most likely have a higher level of

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agreement with the statement concerning the improvement of the district over the next five years

as well.

The next correlation that stood out to our team is present between the level in which the

business agrees to the improvement of the district over the next five years, and the overall

satisfaction of the business with the current economic vitality of the downtown district. At an

alpha level of .05, we are 95% confident that there is a statistically significant relationship

between the extents in which the surveyed population thinks the downtown district will improve

over the next five years, and their current satisfaction of the economic vitality of the district. At a

correlation of 0.35 this shows a slightly positive relationship between the variables. This, in turn,

means that the more the surveyed population thinks the district will improve over the next five

years, the higher their level of current satisfaction with the economic strength of the district, and

vice versa.

Research Question 6: What aspects of the Downtown district contribute most to

overall dissatisfaction in being located in Oceanside?

The qualitative survey question that asked businesses about the main challenge in which

they face from being located in the Oceanside downtown district, brought about six main aspects

of the district that were mentioned repetitively. These six areas are located below in Table 6-1

and give further insight into what areas need to be addressed in order to improve the downtown

district.

Table 6-‐1: Qualitative Response

According to the Table 6-1, one can see that the biggest challenge the businesses in

downtown Oceanside face is the high number of homeless people, vagrants, and transients that

spend their time in the downtown district (with a response rate of 15 businesses). Some owners

believe that this is due to the meal centers provided to the homeless each morning, while others

believe that it is merely a trend that all downtown districts face. According to one interview with

a general manager, who preferred to remain anonymous, he believes that; “the city offers too

many shelters that are aimed to feed and provide for the homeless, which not only attracts a large

homeless population, but it also gives them no reason to leave.” According to many of the

business owners, the vagrants and transients are linked to the drug abuse within the downtown

district of Oceanside.

The second largest problem that the business owners wrote about is the issue of parking

throughout the downtown district, with a response rate of nine businesses. Many say that there is

not enough public parking, which deters people from shopping in the downtown district due to

the inconvenience factor associated with having to find parking far away from their desired

destination. According to another anonymous business owner, she believes that “there should be

no reason to hand out parking tickets to customers who are trying to spend money in the

downtown economy, and that ticketing people for staying to long in the area is only going to

Response Number of Responses

Homeless, Vagrants, and/or Transients 15 Parking 9 City/State Government 8 Safety (Crime, Vandalism, Gangs, or Drugs) 8 Lack of People/Traffic 7 Cleanliness 3

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drive them away from coming back in the future.” Because of this, business owners believe that

consumers’ fear of receiving a parking ticket may also skew their willingness to visit the district.

The next highest frequency in responses was the lack of a competent, or caring local

government, which was indicated as a challenge by eight of the surveyed businesses. These

business owners stated that they do not think that the City of Oceanside, Oceanside Chamber of

Commerce, or even the MainStreet Oceanside Organization, are currently doing the right things

to properly benefit the downtown district. In some cases the business owners even felt deterred

from further meetings with the organizations because they felt that the organization had a lack of

openness to change. In an interview with a general manager, he stated that he had gone to the

MainStreet Oceanside’s monthly meeting, and felt “attacked and insulted” when he brought up

concerns of safety to the organization. He showed a strong desire to improve the area in all

aspects, but also had a similar encounter with the Oceanside Chamber of Commerce. He felt

deterred from working with local organizations due to their lack of openness to criticisms that he

meant not to insult, but instead to aid in the efforts of building a better downtown district.

The next largest area of concern for business owners and managers in the downtown

district was safety. This included all forms of crime, vandalism, graffiti, gangs, and drug use

throughout the district. Another interviewed business owner stated that she was concerned for the

safety of her employees in the early hours of the morning, and in the late hours of the evening.

She said that her employees had to park a far distance away from her business’ location, which

was related to many of her employees running into many “untrustworthy individuals” on their

way to and from work. An additional business manager shared a similar concern in that there is a

high population of individuals that fit the profile of a “gang member” or “drug user” which

caused many of his employees to leave the organization due to safety concerns. In one situation,

the same manager stated that he and his employees witnessed a car being stolen at gunpoint in

front of his business in broad daylight. This situation caused him to lose two of his employees

due to their fear of the same situation occurring to them.

One business owner even went as far as to say the only times his store had ever run into

problems with shoplifting and stealing had been during the days of the street fairs. He said that

he has now been forced to staff more employees on these days to prevent theft, even though they

are his slowest days of the week in terms of sales. Vandalism and graffiti are also major

problems for business owners in the downtown district. They believe it creates a more hardened

image for the area, and drives many customers away from spending longer amounts of time in

the area.

The last two standout responses from the qualitative response area of the survey were the

lack of foot traffic or people in the area with a response from seven businesses, as well as the

overall lack of cleanliness in the area with a response of three businesses. Foot traffic, as

discussed earlier in the report, is below what would be acceptable by many of the businesses and

has a direct association with the amount of business a given organization can achieve. According

many business owners, the streets the day after these markets and street fairs are smothered with

grease stains, cigarette buds, and left over trash, which, in their eyes, is detrimental to the region

and causes the district to lose its aesthetic appeal. The same manager said he would be more

open to these street fairs if the streets and sidewalks were more closely patrolled to keep the

areas clean. Business owners as a whole stated that they felt the district would attract more

people if the streets had had a more clean appeal to the outside public.

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Research Question 7: How do the various elements of businesses relate to their

overall satisfaction of the Downtown area?

After data analysis regarding how various elements of businesses relate to their overall

satisfaction of the downtown area, we can come to several conclusions. These elements include

whether businesses are members of MainStreet Oceanside or not, and how long the companies

have been in business.

According to the analysis gathered, there is in fact one aspect of being a member that

positively correlates with being satisfied overall with the downtown area. The element in which

a correlation exists with being a member of MainStreet Oceanside is the awareness level one has

with the organization. According to our analysis, at an alpha level of 0.05, we are 95% confident

that there is a statistically significant correlation between being a member or not, and being

aware of the services offered by the MainStreet Oceanside. The correlation coefficient is a -0.46,

which shows us that there is a moderate correlation between the knowledge of the services

offered of the organization and being a member or not. This shows us that many members are not

fully aware of the services offered by the MainStreet Oceanside. Many non-members are aware

of the services provided by the organization, but choose not to join. Our analysis shows that

satisfaction of the current economic vitality of the region, satisfaction with current volume of

foot traffic, as well as how the businesses believe the district will improve over the next five

years all have no significant correlation with being a member.

Our analysis also shows that there is no statistically significant correlation between how

long a company has been in business when compared to the other questions of the research

survey. This suggests that the length a company has been in business doesn’t have a statistically

significant correlation with being a member of the MainStreet Oceanside Organization,

satisfaction of current economic vitality, satisfaction of current volume of foot traffic, as well as

the extent in which the businesses believe the downtown district will improve over the next five

years.

Research Question 8: Assess the clusters and leakages that exist in the

downtown district.

Clusters and Leakages by Sector

Most businesses in the downtown district of Oceanside are located along Coast Highway,

as well as in a rather concentrated central area near the coast. To better assess the clusters and

leakages of this area, it can be better understood by looking at four major sectors of the district.

The first sector includes all of the businesses that are in the blocks north of Civic Center Drive

on North Coast Highway. Overall, this sector of the district did not have a high concentration of

businesses, but there were a few notable clusters and leakages that exist. There are only a

handful of businesses in the hotel industry in this particular downtown district, but three of these

hotels are located in a cluster on the north end of the district. With three of the only six hotels

existing in the same block on the north end of Coast Highway, this would be considered a

cluster. In addition, there is also a leakage of businesses in the retail industry in this sector of the

district. There are only three retail businesses in this area, which is very minimal considering the

geographic span of this region.

The second sector to be discussed includes the most central region of the district. The

blocks include, from east to west, those that lie between Ditmar Street and Cleveland Street, and

going from north to south Civic Center Drive and Seagaze Drive. This sector, contrary to the

last, carries a very high concentration level of businesses within the district. In this region, there

are a few clusters of industries that exist. In just three of the blocks in this region, there is a

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cluster of nine retail shops. This number of retail stores is triple that of the northern sector. In

addition, there is also a surplus of restaurants/taverns in this region. There are a total of 24

restaurants in this central region, seven of which are also considered to be taverns. To elaborate,

this number of restaurant-type businesses in the central sector constitute for 53% of the total

number of businesses within that particular industry type in the downtown district.

In the next sector of the district, everything south of the central sector is incorporated.

This area contains businesses along South Coast Highway between Seagaze Drive and

Wisconsin Street. This area is unique from the rest of the district in that there are clusters of

businesses from the automobile industry, as well as the retail industry. Of the 17 businesses in

the district that are classified under the automobile category, 15 of these businesses reside in the

southern sector of the district. This means that almost 90% of the automobile industry businesses

reside in just the six blocks to the south-end of the district. In addition, a very high volume of

retail stores in comparison to the rest of the district also exists in this region. There is a cluster of

18 retail shops in this area along South Coast Highway, making up for 42% of retail shops in the

entire district. The last distinguishable aspect of this southern sector can be considered to be

either a leakage or cluster, depending on the way one assesses at the situation. There are a

significant number of vacancies in this sector of the district, 11 total. The abundance of

vacancies can be seen as a cluster or leakage due to the fact that these vacancies should be

replaced by businesses. While the 10 remaining vacancies are spread out among the district,

these 11 (or 53%) are concentrated in this southern sector.

The last individual sector to be discussed lies in the eastern region of the district. This

area includes everything east of Ditmar Street all the way up to right before the I-5. This sector

is unique because it is the only section of the district that is home to a shopping center. While

this shopping center may be unique to others, it accounts for a few of the reasons this sector has

the clusters and leakages that it does. This sector is the only region that has a cluster of service-

oriented businesses, and a large portion of these fall under the salon, spa, and personal services

category. Another aspect of this sector of the district that makes it unique in comparison to the

others is an abundance of office units. Because it is adjacent to the Oceanside Chamber of

Commerce, there are a few organizations that would be distinct to any inventory of businesses.

Another notable fact is the number of financial offices/services offered in this sector. In addition

to the service category mentioned above, these types of services also account for a portion of the

cluster that exists.

Total Clusters & Leakages Figure 8-‐1: Industry inventory by count and percentage

Automo[ve 8%

Vacant 9%

Other/Office 10%

Retail 20%

Hotel 3%

Restaurant 21%

Service 29%

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Figure 8-1 on the previous page displays the number count of businesses in the

downtown district, as well as the percentage of that industry to inventory as a whole. This data

will be useful in determining the clusters and leakages that exist in the downtown district overall.

To better understand the dynamics of this downtown area, it will be dissected in terms of

industries that focus on four primary objectives/attractions for consumers in the area: stay, play,

shop, and dine.

The shopping and dining categories are in direct alignment with the retail and restaurant

inventory displayed in the figure above. As shown, both account for about 20% of the district

overall, (retail with 20%, and restaurants making up for 21%). While the retail and restaurant

businesses that exist in the district may be concentrated in certain sectors, their overall

percentages of the district are consistent if the area is seeking to have an equal distribution of

“stay, play, shop, and dine” businesses.

One may also notice that the service industry accounts for the largest percentage of

business types in the downtown Oceanside district. In accordance with the “stay, play, shop, and

dine” mantra, these businesses would fall within the “play category.” The fact that this industry

type has the highest level of inventory could be for a variety of reasons, but can be justified by

the fact that the range of services offered varies quite immensely. But, also note that the

automobile services industry was given its own industry category. Because the automobile

businesses in the area technically provide a service, they are also a part of this “play” or service

category in a broad sense. This, in turn, would then mean that the service industry consists of

37% of the total business inventory in this district, with a total number count of 81. While the

services offered may range, the industry overall represents a cluster of inventory in the

downtown district.

The next distinguished aspect of this district is displayed in the hotel area of the graph.

While the “stay” category may be an importance piece of the pie for downtown districts overall,

the six hotels in the downtown district of Oceanside only account for 3% of its total inventory of

businesses. If the option for visitors to stay in the Downtown district is a primary concern for

MainStreet, this number may seem somewhat low- and ultimately represent a leakage in the area.

As displayed in the figure above, there is also a cluster of vacancies, or vacant lots that

subsist in the downtown area. Regrettably, these vacant lots make up for 10% of the total

businesses accounted for in the inventory. While the majority of these vacancies reside in the

southern sector of the district, there are vacant lots throughout.

Recommendations

The following section is a list of recommendations formulated by the team after a careful

analysis of both the quantitative and qualitative data gathered from February 2013 thru April

2013. The findings include issues that concern a lack of parking, strong homeless population,

awareness of the MainStreet organization, as well as clusters and leakages. Each finding is

defined and described with links to the analysis, and is then directly followed with the

recommendation for the given problem or opportunity that was found throughout the research

process.

Finding 1:

A common theme among those surveyed involved the lack of parking throughout the

downtown Oceanside district thus restricting potential customers along with their money from

visiting the area. One hotel owner when interviewed stated, “I only have 4 parking spaces for

my 25 room hotel. During the booking process, I advise my customers to take the Coaster or to

park several blocks away”.

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Recommendation 1:

Consider a strategy that would allow for a multilevel parking structure. This would

require a smaller lot or piece of property than a large street level parking lot would. If the public

has access too conveniently and safely park in a centralized area, this alone should improve the

bottom line for every industry in the district. This could only be achieved through strong

cooperation of fundraising efforts between the MainStreet Oceanside organization, Oceanside

Chamber of Commerce, Oceanside City Council, alongside local businesses.

Finding 2:

Large population of homeless and transients produces several results. Business owners

have lost employees due to the belief that they are not as safe as they could be without this

problem. Owners feel that when these transients loiter and litter in front of their businesses that

it deters the general public from wanting to do business with them.

Recommendation 2:

Attempt to reduce or relocate the food shelters to a location east of Interstate 5. This

should reduce the amount of transients that are walking the business district, as they would now

be concentrated around the Oceanside Transit Center in order to catch a bus to the relocated

shelters.

Finding 3:

Based upon the results in Research Question 2, businesses in the downtown district

generally have low awareness levels of the services offered by MainStreet Oceanside. This is

especially true with the non-members, as in the results section of Research Question 2, which

showed 48% of the non-members surveyed respondent not aware. In addition, we found the

reason why these non-members are not aware of their services is because they have not been

directly or physically contacted by MainStreet Oceanside. Moreover, the results of the survey

showed that the awareness levels are the highest when the business was either directly contacted

or via a walk-in.

Recommendation 3:

We feel it would be beneficial for MainStreet Oceanside to make efforts to increase both

their overall visibility, as well as increase the awareness of the services the organization offers.

This would benefit MainStreet Oceanside because it could help mend the negative perception

businesses have with MainStreet Oceanside, but also at the same time it provides an opportunity

to potentially get more businesses to become members, increasing MainStreet Oceanside’s

revenue. If a strategy is implemented to better the visibility of the organization and increase the

awareness of the services offered it will aid in MainStreet’s ability to improve the economic

vitality of the downtown district.

As our team collected data, we found that many businesses in the district have a negative

perception of the events that the organization facilitates. However, we found that these

businesses weren’t aware of who MainStreet Oceanside is or what they do until we told them

that they are the organization that puts of The Farmers Market and The Sunset Market. This,

along with the results of Research Question 2, shows there has not been much contact between

MainStreet Oceanside and the businesses.

We recommend that MainStreet Oceanside conduct a walkthrough of all the businesses

that are not members in their district, going door to door and meeting with the business owners

or managers. When they meet with these businesses, we urge they explain exactly what

MainStreet Oceanside does, how their goal is to improve the economic vitality of the district, and

how they plan to achieve this goal. This will not only ensure that the businesses are aware of

31 | P a g e

MainStreet, but it will provide justification for the motives behind The Farmers Market and The

Sunset Market. We feel a major contributing factor to the negative perceptions of these two

events is because of the lack of knowledge business owners have as to why these events are

being held. Moreover, if business owners are aware of the reasons why the markets are taking

place it could help open their minds to benefits of hosting such events. Once the awareness is

gained and a relationship is being built, it can provide MainStreet with an opportunity to get

more businesses to become members of their organization. This would increase their revenue and

allow them to have more capital to reinvest into the community.

Finding 4:

In regards to data found in Research Question 8, there seems to be an overall leakage of

retail businesses. While the retail industry does account for 20% of the inventory of businesses,

the service industry accounts for almost double that with 37%.

Recommendation 4:

We believe that the most successful analysis would consist of more businesses geared

toward the retail industry. While some may say that the “play” aspect of a market analysis is

important, many of the service-oriented businesses in the district do not offer much fun for

consumers. The service industry is comprised mostly of automobile shops, quick one-stop shops

for laundry or a haircut, or financial services. We believe that in order to keep visitors occupied

and in the area longer, there is a necessity for additional retail shops. Because shopping centers

and “big box” stores are not a far drive away from Oceanside’s Main Street, it is imperative that

the district competes as a retail area (Ulster County). The most successful way to avoid having

consumers leave the area to shop elsewhere is to provide consumers with a market of niche and

specialty retail stores that offer a unique ambiance or special experience that would not be found

elsewhere. As well as keeping visitors in the area for a longer duration per visit, increasing the

number of retail businesses in the area will help make the district a more desirable shopping

destination. In the long run this will help increase positive foot traffic throughout the district.

This will immensely benefit the local restaurant industry, as well as increase awareness of the

services offered by service businesses in the area.

Finding 5:

According to Research Question 2, overall knowledge of the services offered by

MainStreet Oceanside falls between the categories of Slightly aware and Moderately aware. In

addition, the most frequently selected response by the participating businesses indicated that they

were Not aware of the services provided by MainStreet Oceanside.

Recommendation 5:

In order to better facilitate awareness of MainStreet Oceanside and the services in which

they offer, we propose that they begin a large social media campaign to engage their

stakeholders. While MainStreet Oceanside already has an operating website, social media

platforms provide additional features that can allow for more efficient communication among the

community. According to a Main Street blog found online, conversations are going to happen in

a marketplace no matter what, but positive marketing encourages the right kind of conversations

(Hudson, 2011). While some of the qualitative research indicated that not every business had

positive opinions about MainStreet, a lot of this may be attributed to the lack of information of

knowledge that the businesses have about MainStreet. In order to capitalize upon the

opportunities for communication and awareness that social media may offer, MainStreet

Oceanside can introduce a month-long social media campaign that engages all stakeholders of

the community.

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Conclusion

This consulting project added great value to all group members’ education. Having a

breakdown of the various industries will facilitate communication between business owners and

MainStreet. MainStreet Oceanside has a strong foothold in the community, and the information

provided in this study will bolster that foothold.

Appendix

Data Collection Survey: MainStreet Oceanside Customer Survey

This is an anonymous survey being used to obtain insight into the standing of MainStreet Oceanside from a business perspective and gather data regarding the economic vitality of the Downtown Oceanside district. 1) Are you currently a member of MainStreet Oceanside? Please circle one.

Yes No

2) Please place a check in the box that indicates how you first learned about MainStreet Oceanside.

Word of Mouth Walk-‐in Direct Contact

Online Search Engine Not Applicable Other:_________________________________

3) How aware are you of the services offered by MainStreet Oceanside business association? Please circle one.

Not Aware Slightly Aware Moderately Aware Aware Extremely Aware

4) Please select the response that corresponds with how long your company has been in business.

Less than one year 1-‐2 years 3-‐5 years 6+ years

5) What type of industry would you classify your business as? Please circle one.

Retail Hotel Restaurant/Tavern Services Offices Auto-‐motive Services

Other:___________

6) On a scale ranging from 1-‐7, how satisfied are you with the current economic vitality of the Downtown Oceanside district? Please circle one.

Extremely Dissatisfied 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely Satisfied

7) On a scale ranging from 1-‐7, how satisfied are you with the current volume of foot traffic in the downtown area? Please circle one.

Extremely Dissatisfied 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely Satisfied

8) Please indicate the extent of which you agree or disagree with the following statement: As a whole, the downtown Oceanside district will improve over the next five years.


9) What is one Challenge that your business faces from being located in downtown Oceanside?

Thank you for your participation in this survey.

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Figures:

Figure 1-‐1: How businesses first learned about MainStreet

Figure 2-‐2 – Non-‐Member Awareness of Services

16

12 14

0

10

7

0

5

10

15

20

Word of Mouth

Walk-‐in Direct Contact

Online Search Engine

Not Applicable

Other

Figure 4-1

Figure 4-2

24

12 9

3 1

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

Not Aware Slightly Aware Moderately Aware

Aware Extremely Aware

3.83 3.56 3.71

4.24 4.43 4.19

4.66

5.29

4.66

0

1

2

3

4

5

6



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Figure 5-‐1

Figure 8-‐1: Industry inventory by count and percentage

2.71 2.42

4.21

2.99

3.57 3.88

4.93

4.00 4.44

5.33 5.66

5.01

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Retail Restaurants Services Automo[ve


3.23% 2.08%

9.68% 7.14%

10.42%

29.03%

14.29%

33.33% 38.71%

35.71% 39.58%

0.193548 0.145833

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%



Tables:

Table 2-‐1 – Overall Awareness of Services Data



Table 2-2 – Member Awareness of Services Data



Table 3 – Volume of Foot Traffic


Automo[ve 8%

Vacant 9%

Other/Office 10%

Retail 20%

Hotel 3%

Restaurant 21%

Service 29%

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Foot Traffic Volume 4.2619 4 4

Table 6-‐1

Response Number of Responses

Homeless, Vagrants, and/or Transients 15 Parking 9 City/State Government 8 Safety (Crime, Vandalism, Gangs, or Drugs) 8 Lack of People/Traffic 7 Cleanliness 3

research analysis and inventory of businesses

Documents

downtown oceanside district

oceanside area

oceanside organizations

leakages of businesses

market analysis of businesses

todays oceanside

managers of businesses

major challenges businesses