Video: Starkville Consumer Spending Survey

STARKVILLE,Miss.(WCBI)—Looking toward the future was the theme Friday Morning as Starkville City leaders, MSU students and community members gathered to hear the results of The Starkville Consumer Spending Survey.

The Survey, Conducted by Mississippi State University reports an estimated 608 million dollars is spent annually by residents, visitors, along with university students faculty and staff.

SHOP,SHOP,SHOP. Many are familiar with what helps a city strive and that’s putting money back in the community.

NSPARC Representative Mimmo Parisi says That’s what they are here to figure out just how much is being put back.

” The study was initiated by the Mayor so the Mayor reached out to NSPARC. He was having difficulty to make the case that we have purchasing power in the community to attract high end retail industry,”said  Parisi.

The first step was getting the community involved and that’s where the Greater Starkville Development Partnership steps in.

“The partnership was really excited to be apart of the survey and we were challenged to come up with to encourage the participants of the survey to fill it out to it’s entity and send it back in. And so prizes and instinctive range anywhere from gift cards to a local restaurant to events to a partnership event tickets to an apple watch to a yeti cooler that’s MSU engraves. Just really great incentives we were able to provide,”said Membership Development Director Heath Barret.

The survey showed 80 million dollars come from MSU Students, 44 million from Faculty and Staff 236 million from residents 56 million from MSU Alumni and season tickets holders and 192 million from visitors.

Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman says the study showed him some results he didn’t expect.

” I was some what surprised that college students MSU alums and season ticket holders and annual visitors comprised over half of our annual retail spending… that’s a big number I was not surprised that it made up a significant portion over our retail market but I don’t know if I would have predicted over half of the total retail market,”said Wiseman.

The survey also showcased an overwhelming participant support of developing a major shopping center or mall. 87 percent of participants indicate they would frequently shop there.