The Transition of a Commercial Landscape:

Growth of Latino Businesses in Cobb County Georgia

Harold R. Trendell, Ph.D. Kennesaw State University

Agatino LaRosa, Ph.D. Kennesaw State University

               

               

Latino businesses are projected to grow from an estimated 2 million in 2004, with $273 billion in revenues to 3.2 million in 2010 with $465 billion in revenues.

(Source: HispanTelligence® 2004)

Statistics and Information on the Hispanic Population and Market - 2004

(complied by the Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce)

UNITED STATES

1) Hispanics are the are the nation’s largest minority group. Latino population currently estimated at 39.8 million, a 13 percent increase since Census 2000. (U.S. Census Bureau 2004)

2) The Hispanic population is expected to grow nationally by more than 1.7 percent a year, which translates to 100,000 every three weeks, or 5,000 people per day. (Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, 2003)

3) Hispanic-owned firms account for nearly 6 percent of all businesses in the U.S. Latinos owned nearly 1.2 million firms with gross receipts of $186 billion, employing over 1.3 million people.

(1997 Economic Census released in March 2001)

GEORGIA

1) The Latino population in Georgia grew faster than any state in the nation between 2000 and 2002, at 17 percent from a Census 2000 base population of 435,227 to 509,216 persons.

(U.S. Census Bureau, September 2003)

2) Georgia ranks third behind North Carolina and Arkansas in the rate of growth of Latino buying power between 1990 and 2004 - up 710 percent. (Selig Center for Economic Growth, Univ. of Georgia, 2004)

3) Dollar-wise Georgia is 10th in the nation in Latino market size/buying power at $10.9 billion.

(Selig Center for Economic Growth, Univ. of Georgia, 2004)

4) Georgia ranks 13th in the U.S. with 13,251 Latino-owned firms. (Georgia Trend, 2001)

ATLANTA METRO AREA

1) Latino Population

Gwinnett Co. 64,137 (13% of county pop.)

DeKalb Co. 52,542

Fulton Co. 48, 056

Cobb Co. 46, 964

These 4 counties account for about 50 percent of Georgia’s Latino population.

(U.S. Census Bureau, 2001)

2) Suro and Singer classified Atlanta as a “New Latino Destination” noting that the Hispanic population of the Atlanta MSA grew 388 percent between the last two Census reports:

55,045 in 1990

268, 851 in 2000.

(The Brookings Institution, Survey Series, July 2002)

3) Latino Buying Power - selected Metro countiesGwinnett Co. $1.8 billion

Fulton Co. $1.7 billion

Cobb Co. $1.6 billion

DeKalb Co. $1.4 billion(Selig Center for Economic Growth, Univ. of Georgia, 2002)

4) Eleven of Atlanta’s top 25 minority-owned firms are owned by Latinos.

(The Book of Lists, 2002)

Working Premises:

1) Latinos in the U.S. are not just an aberrational immigration phenomenon - legal or illegal.

2) The Latino population is a permanent and growing fixture in the cultural, political, and economic landscape of the United States.

The Problem:

How to measure the change and impact of Latino businesses on the commercial landscape of a given area?

“The biggest change [in the Latino Business Community] is that there is a very wide diversity of businesses – not just in the restaurant and grocery businesses, which are usually the first to come into the area, but in other businesses as well.”

Roberto N. Allen, PresidentHispanic Chamber of CommerceBaltimore, Maryland (3/15/04)

A recycled mini-strip mall to Latino tenants in Cobb Co.

A panadería in another small strip mall.

Looks Latino, but owned by a major U.S. Bank.

HYPOTHESIS:

Given that restaurants are an entry-level business activity for immigrants, locational analysis of the growth of Latino restaurants and changes in the commercial landscape will be an indicator of the economic assimilation of Latinos into the cultural fabric of the United States.

DATA: Digital Restaurant Inspection Records 1997-2004 Public Health Department, Cobb County, Georgia.

METHODOLOGY:1) Use of personal knowledge to filter restaurants.2) Deleted all non-Latino restaurant names by inspection. 3) Included all restaurants with Mexican or Latin in the name. 4) Investigated doubtful Latino Restaurant nameswith telephone calls and site inspections.5) Deleted doubtful Latino restaurant names, if they were closed during the study period.

The first Latino-owned restaurant in Cobb County, Georgia opened in 1979.

1979

1

1979 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

6877

{...}

90

107

123 127

148142

Lat

ino

Res

taur

ants

50

100

150

20001997

20041997

Spatial Analysis

• The Spatial Distribution of Latino Restaurant follows the growing pattern of Cobb County.

• There is no evidence of spatial relationship between Latino residence areas and Latino restaurant locations.

Future Directions

• Investigation of the economics of the opening or closing of Latino restaurants over time and comparison with the general business population.

• Investigation on the relationship between the Latino population trends and Latino economic development.