Retail Trade

February 15, 2011 — The Editors

This week we’ll take a look at how some sectors within the overall retail trade industry are faring during an era of structural change going on in our system for getting products from maker to end user. Our online purchases are rising quickly while restructuring within the distribution channel has caused some wholesale industries to be absorbed by the ends of the chain, manufacturers or retailers. To start off, a look at the Retail Trade Industry as a whole. Please note, these figures do not reflect the downturn suffered as a result of the recession which began, officially, in December 2007.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 1997 and 2007
Market size: Number of Establishments: 1,118,447 and 1,122,703 respectively.
Market size: Sales: $2.46 and $3.93 Trillion respectively.
Market size: Employment: 13.9 and 15.6 Million respectively.
Source: “Sector 00: EC0700CADV2: All Sectors: Core Business Statistics Series: Advanced Compariative Statistics for the United States (2002 NAICS Basis): 2007 and 2002,” 2007 Economic Census, available online here. The data from 1997 are from the 1997 Economic Census.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

Posted in Market Size, Retail Outlets. No Comments »

Valentine’s Day as a Market

February 14, 2011 — The Editors

Based on a survey conducted for the National Retail Federation, spending on Valentine’s Day is expected to be up in 2011 after two down years in 2009 and 2010. For all those in the business of selling flowers, cards, chocolates, champagne, footie pajamas, and romantic dinners out, here’s hoping the forecast is correct!

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2005 and 2011 forecast
Market size: $13.19 and $15.7 Billion respectively.
Source: “Men to Pay High Price for Love on Valentine’s Day,” an NRF press release from January 31, 2006, available online here. The estimate for 2011 is from the same source, 2011 Valentine’s Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, the press release for which is available here.
Original Source: National Retail Federation and BIGresearch.

Posted in Entertainment, Holiday decorations, Market Size. No Comments »

Coffee

January 26, 2011 — The Editors

In the Upper Midwest of the United States this time of year, our love of hot drinks is particularly noticable, as it is, no doubt, anywhere the temperatures drops below freezing and stay there a while. This made us think of the market for coffee. The market sizes presented here are world production figures for two years.

The production of this commodity is tracked in 60-kilogram bags of the beans. The price of coffee is tracked by the International Coffee Organization and has been rising streadily in recent years. Based on the monthly composite indicator price at which coffee is traded on the New York market the price rose 160% between December 2000 and December 2009. Over the same period, world inventories grew by 40%. And, since December 2009 the price has continued to rise, reaching 173.9 cents per pound in November 2010, the equivalent to 260% of the price per pound back in December 2000. Savor every sip!

We could do a simple calculation to get a rough approximation of the value of coffee produced in 2010, based on the information in our source report. If the November composite price for all types of coffee beans was $1.74, then a 60-kilogram bag would cost about $47.33 and thus world production in 2010 was worth approximately $5.6 Billion. Of course, this is a very crude approximation so take it for what it is worth.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2008 and 2010
Market size: 133.6 Million and 139 Million 60-Kilogram bags respectively.
Source: “Coffee: World Markets and Trade,” USDA Circular Series, Table 6 and Table 8, December 2010, available online here.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, and the International Coffee Organization.

Posted in Beverages, Market Size. 2 Comments »

Bricks

January 25, 2011 — The Editors

Today we look at the market size of another construction materials industry that has been hard hit by the housing crisis in the United States. The market size being presented here, for two different years, is the number of standard brick equivalents or SBEs shipped by the industry per year. It is worth noting that the interim years, between 1995 and 2009, saw strong sales and shipments—in the range of 8 to 9 billion SBEs—but did not skyrocket quite as much as some other construction material sectors.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 1995 and 2009
Market size: 7.0 billion and 3.7 billion SBEs respectively.
Source: “Boral USA, Analyst Visit,” a presenation, table 60, September 2009.
Original Source: Boral Ltd. and Brick Industry Association

Posted in Construction Materials, Housing, Market Size. No Comments »

Industrial Scrubbers

January 21, 2011 — The Editors

The sorts of scrubbers we’re looking at here are a diverse assortment of complex pollution control devices. They are used to control—reduce and capture— pollutants that are emitted during an industrial process. The market size presented here is based on an industry projection.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2012
Market size: $6.5 Billion
Source: Water World, October 2009
Original Source: McIlvaine Company

Posted in Heavy Machinery, Market Size, Pollution Control Device. No Comments »

Dialysis Market

January 18, 2011 — The Editors

This market size represents the number of tax dollars spent to care for those on dialysis every year in the United States. In October 1972, Congress made revisions to the Social Security Act so that anyone diagnosed with kidney failure, regardless of age or income, would have comprehensive coverage under Medicare.

Initially, before guaranteed payments from Medicare, hospitals provided most of the care on a nonprofit basis, albeit on a limited basis. In 2010, 80 percent of the clinics offering dialysis were for-profit, with two-thirds of those operated by two chains: DaVita Incorporated (based in Colorado) and Fresenius Medical Care North America (a subsidiary of a German company that makes dialysis machines and supplies). Together these two companies make $2 billion in operating profits per year. More than 100,000 people start dialysis each year in the United States. In 2010, there were nearly 400,000 patients receiving dialysis.
Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2010
Market size: $20 billion
Source: Robin Fields, “God Help You. You’re On Dialysis,” The Atlantic, December 2010, pp. 82-92 and available online here.

Posted in Health Care, Market Size, Medical Devices. 1 Comment »

Refrigerators in Homes

January 17, 2011 — The Editors

This market size referred to in this post is the number of refrigerators that were in place, in residential housing units in the United States in 2009. While the source does not specify that this is the number of full sized and primary refrigerators per residence, it would seem that that must be the case, since we all know somebody with an old refrigerator (or two) in the basement…

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: 126,534,000
Source: “Housing Units—Characteristics by Tenure and Region: 2009,”
Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011, Table 983, page 616, U.S. Census Bureau, available online here.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

Posted in Appliances, Market Size. 2 Comments »

Number of Repossessed Homes

January 12, 2011 — The Editors

During the housing market crisis we have read many and often contradictory accounts of just how many homes are in foreclosure, or the number of homes being foreclosed upon, or the number of home mortgages in a delinquent state. The process of foreclosing on a delinquent mortgage is a lengthy one and the measures being spoken of in the media so often refer to measurements at different stages in this process. What we present here are the number of homes that were repossessed by the bank, the number of home foreclosures that reach the endgame in three different years.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2008, 2009 and 2010 (estimate)
Market size: 862,000, 918,000 and 980,000 housing units respectively
Source: “Record U.S. Foreclosures in 2009,” an article on the World Socialist Web Site, available online here. The 2010 figure was taken from “Number of Homes Taken by Lenders Tumbles,” SFGate.com a news site sponsored by Hearst Communications Inc. and available online here.
NOTE: A new RealtyTrac Press Release came out on January 13, 2011 and has been reported on by the AP here. The AP report states that over one million homes were repossessed in 2010. This heavily repeated figure is all over the news, blogospher, and Internet yet, oddly, we have been unable to obtain an actual figure of repossessed homes from a thorough search of the RealtyTrac web site. So, we shall leave our originally presented estimate as is.
Original Source: RealtyTrac Inc.

Posted in Housing, Market Size. No Comments »

Homes

January 11, 2011 — The Editors

After looking at the number of vacant homes in the United States, we turn to a measure of all houses in the
country. The market size number presented below includes all single-family attached and detached units as well
as apartments and condominiums, it is the total of all residential housing units.

This market size is broken out by type of housing unit in this way: Single family detached homes, 63.4%;
single family attached (townhouses and the like), 5.5%; apartments and condominiums in 2 to 4 unit buildings,
7.8%; units in 5 to 9 unit buildings, 4.9%; units in buidlings with 10 to 19 units, 7.4%; apartments and/or
condominiums in buidlings with 20 or more units, 7.4%, and manufactured/mobile homes, 6.8%.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: 130,112,000 housing units
Source: “Housing Units—Characteristics by Tenure and Region: 2009,”
Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011, Table 983, page 616, U.S. Census Bureau.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

Posted in Housing, Market Size. No Comments »

Vacant Houses

January 10, 2011 — The Editors

In this year’s edition of the always useful Statistical Abstract of the United States, a publication we turn to often in our work, we found the number of vacant housing units (single-family attached and detached units as well as apartments, all capable of occupancy year-round).

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: 13,688,000 units
Source: “Housing Units—Characteristics by Tenure and Region: 2009,” Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2011, Table 983, page 616, U.S. Census Bureau.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census.

Posted in Housing, Market Size. No Comments »
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