Oxford's consumer base has much more buying power than census data shows, according to a comprehensive study of student spending conducted by the Miami University chapter of Pi Sigma Epsilon (PSE).
Bill Maltvie and Greg Suit, who respectively work in real estate and construction, commissioned the study.
Junior Katie Smith headed the nine-student team, which conducted the study beginning in November 2008.
"We found that students triple the traditional measures of spending power in Oxford based on census results," Smith said.
The study was conducted by way of a survey about spending habits sent out to all Miami students, garnering a sample size of over 1,000, Smith said.
Maltvie and Suit, who were roommates at Miami and work together as business partners in Oxford and around the country, said the study was necessary because current statistics showing Oxford's buying power are "woefully inaccurate."
"Looking at demographic information that was available for the Oxford area, it was apparent that the students were missing from almost everything except the population count," Suit said. "Nobody had really quantified the students' contribution to the community as consumers."
The 8,000 students living off-campus were being counted as part of the population, but the income of the 12,000 year-round residents of Oxford was spread among all 20,000 residents and students, making Oxford look very poor, Maltvie explained.
As a result, Maltvie said businesses looking to come to Oxford often misunderstand the city's population.
"Retailers are very simple to deal with," Maltvie said. "If there's a population with money to buy their products, they'll put a store there."
Smith, Suit and sophomore Zach Hyndman presented some of the results of the study to the Oxford Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) April 17. The CIC serves in an advisory capacity to Alan Kyger, Oxford's director of economic development.
"The CIC was excited and pleased … to have this kind of information," Kyger said.
Kyger said he hopes to use the information as a tool to market Oxford to businesses. Kyger said he also hopes to work with PSE fall semester 2009 to review data from the survey and create marketing materials for Oxford.
Both Maltvie and Suit said they were very impressed with PSE, and Maltvie said he wants to use PSE and a decision sciences class next fall to conduct another study of outside spending in Oxford. Maltvie said he wants to "quantify all of the money that comes in from the outside" from sources like tourism and athletic events.
David Prytherch, assistant professor of geography at Miami and representative of the Oxford planning commission to the CIC, said the results of the study will help further an understanding of economic opportunities in Oxford.
"We need a broader economic base, we have a lot of empty storefronts, and we get frustrated because we have spending power here … we have a lot more potential than people realize," Prytherch said.
Suit echoed Prytherch's sentiment and said uptown Oxford should be full of businesses the entire communities wants and needs, including Miami students.
"Everyone would like to see business in Oxford grow and diversify, and see spaces uptown filled with things that the community and student body would like to see," Suit said.
"If that happens, how that happens, remains to be seen. This (study) is just one piece in the puzzle."
