ROOM AT THE TABLE - Intersight - University at Buffalo

In 2007, there were 8,662 retail establishments located in Erie County
(See Table 4.3). Of these, 1,237 (14.3%) of these establishments were food
retail establishments. Food retail constituted 21.0 percent of all retail sales
for the year, at $3.3 billion. All retail stores in Erie County had $16.1 billion
retail sales for the same year. Additionally, food retailers employ 16,690
individuals (28.2%) working in the retail sector. As demonstrated, the retail
sector is the second largest employment sector in Erie County and within
that sector, food retailers are the largest employers. Looking at the entire
picture, for a portion of the retail sector that has a relatively small percentage
of establishments, food retailers account for approximately one out of every
)*'(+'/0,3(1"330+$($B'#/(0#1(!3"$'(/"([\(B'+!'#/(".(033(+'/0,3('&B3"5''$6
The service sector in Erie County is also heavily dominated by
the food industry. Approximately 25 percent of all service establishments
are food service establishments (See Table 4.4). More than $400 million,
which is more than half (51.4%) of gross service sales, is collected from
food service retailers. Food service retailers are the largest employers in the
service sector as well, employing two out of every three employees (66.7%).
Taken together, the food retail and food service retail constitutes a
large portion of both the retail and service sector combined (See Figure
4.8). Food businesses comprise 20.2 percent of all retail and service
'$/023,$4&'#/$6(O,/4("#35("#'(,#()*'(".(/4'('$/023,$4&'#/$E(.""1(2%$,#'$$'$(
comprise close to one­third (32.7%) of all sales and almost one in every
two (46.2%) individuals employed in the entire retail and service sectors
is employed at a food business. In sum, food businesses comprise a large
proportion of both the retailing and service industries within Erie County.
In total, both the food retailing and food service businesses located in Erie
County make up a large portion of Erie County’s entire retailing and service
industries (See Appendix G, Table 11).
48
Sales by Type of Establishments
Employees by Type of Establishments
(Source: US Census Bureau)
Table 4.3 – Role of Food Businesses Among Entire
Retailing Industry, Erie County
Establishments Sales Employees
No. % $1,000 % No. %
Food
retail
1237 14.30 3,378,831 21.00 16,690 28.20
Non­food
retail
7425 85.70 12,727,473 79.00 42,441 71.80
Total 8,662 100 16,106,304 100 59,131 100
(Source: 2007 Economic Census & Non­Employers Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau)