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A GUIDE TO RETAIL IMPACT STUDIES present measurable leakage to other communities. Communities with strong tourism sectors or particularly appealing retail offerings or districts will demonstrate surplus sales in selected categories and deficits in others. The addition of a strong and appealing large format retailer will not reverse all leakage, as the lure of the big city or the novel retailer will always remain. For most communities, strategies to reduce leakage must be balanced with a concern for maintaining the strength of those retail segments generating a surplus. A Note on Data Sources Retail sales data can be procured from three general sources, presented in ascending order of preference: Public records may be reviewed for a broad snapshot of retail activity in a given municipality. Federal and state data sources tend to be reliable in large jurisdictions where suppression is unnecessary. However, these datasets are typically updated infrequently and are subject to suppression often enough to yield only the broadest analyses. They should not be utilized for anything more substantial than preliminary reviews for discussion. Local government officials may be willing to provide actual sales records for a given municipality. In a small market, the analyst can then conduct a survey of goods offered at existing retailers and allocate sales to specific lines of goods. While this is clearly the most accurate method for identifying current retail sales, it presents challenges. First, in all but the smallest communities, it may be prohibitively time-consuming to visit every retailer and identify the range of goods offered. Second, confidentiality requirements may make reporting quite difficult because the analysts themselves will be required to suppress any detailed data that might reveal sales of a particular business. Private, proprietary data providers are the more common source of retail sales numbers for any jurisdiction. In many ways, these datasets are preferred because they provide the analyst with the most detailed and current information available. Using proprietary algorithms and/or rolling surveys, these frequently updated datasets fill in the gaps created by data suppression. Moreover, relying on a private data provider frees the analyst from the confidentiality constraints associated with the use of actual sales tax records. The amount of detail reported will be limited by professional courtesy and client sensitivities rather than strict and legally binding agreements. Moreover, the software associated with these data providers allows a highly customized analysis according to a wide variety of geographic or economic parameters. Claritas and ESRI are two of the leading providers, and both are widely accepted sources among retailers, market analysts, and economic development practitioners. Quantifying Retail Employment and Wages in the Region The analyst then needs to quantify retail employment and wages in the market area. One source for this data is the U.S. Census Bureau's Economic Census.This census is conducted every five years and typically there is further delay before publication. This results in outdated datasets for most analyses. However, adjusting these values for inflation in the time since the 13