Retail Coach Data Suggests Bright Future In Return To Retail Vitality In Carroll

The Retail Coach collaboration with the City of Carroll and the Carroll Economic Development Corporation (CADC) has generated data pointing to a positive outlook for the retail future of the community. The Coach, Austin Farmer, says visitors to Carroll come from as far away as Lincoln, Neb. and the Iowa City, Cedar Rapids area and that foot traffic in the downtown region has shown an increase in recent months, following the lifting of many COVID restrictions. “Downtown continues to see steady foot traffic and signs of steady recovery from COVID,” Farmer says. “Estimated foot traffic downtown was up in March (+13.9%) and April (18.3%) compared to a three-year average baseline with April’s estimated traffic level eclipsing 2019 numbers. This points to pre-pandemic traffic levels and is a good indicator that summer traffic should return to similar levels.” In March, there were over 12,000 visitors weekly to downtown Carroll, which is slightly higher than 2019 and a 100 percent baseline change of the approximately 1,000 per week in March of 2020.

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