Retail And Banking

The year of 1991 is when Cary's Walnut Street became a shopping mecca. Early that year Crossroads Plaza, a $60 million power center with 11 anchors, over 50 smaller stores and several restaurants, opened at the intersection of U.S. 64 and Walnut Street. By July, the quiet, community Cary Village Mall, originally built in 1979, had completed a massive, glittering expansion that pushed its size to over 1 million square feet and 112 stores. Renamed Cary Towne Center, it is the only Triangle mall that boasts all five area major department stores. Together with the half-million square feet of South Hills Mall, which was built on Walnut Street in 1963, the three shopping centers are a huge regional draw for shoppers. Easy access off I-40 and U.S. 64 is a key. The success of each lies in diversity offered. South Hills is a community and family-oriented mall that mixes national retail chains with locally-owned and operated speciality shops. Cary Towne Center with its variety of department stores, smaller shops and medium priced, high quality merchandise, has a broad appeal. The national chain superstores and shops at Crossroads, on the other hand, are more specialized: office supplies, hardware, toys, books, linens. All draw shoppers who like having such diversity within one short mile.

Gross Retail Sales
	NC	Wake County	Raleigh	Cary
FYI 1997-1998	$116,762,211,455	$10,318,839,601	$6,437,307,729	$1,335,731,331
FYI 1996-1997	$114,604,920,484	$10,126,507,138	$6,367,566,480	$1,282,062,687
FYI 1995-1996	$106,504,145,893	$8,983,188,118	$5,757,805,966	$1,059,086,444
FYI 1994-1995	$90,381,701,603	$8,085,343,253	$5,282,059,584	$876,945,949
FYI 1993-1994	$81,714,351,139	$7,154,137,188	$4,739,036,327	$722,416,147
FYI 1992-1993	$74,392,316,777	$6,295,882,903	$4,185,076,017	$641,802,729
FYI 1991-1992	$68,595,536,277	$5,597,442,041	$3,838,022,700	$522,047,555
Source: North Carolina Department of Revenue, "Monthly Report of State Sales and Use Tax Gross Collections and Gross Retail Sales

Shopping in town is not confined to Walnut Street. Whether it's the simply beautiful Waverly Place, the charm of downtown, the new impressive style of Preston Corners, the quiet elegance of MacGregor Village, Cary offers a diverse range of tone and choice. The original shopping district, of course, was downtown. Today, Ashworth's Drugs still runs a daily lunch counter, and the milkshakes there are nothing short of heavenly. Specialty and gift shops, longtime businesses and traditional services line the street, and Cary's Farmer's Market now has a permanant home downtown.

Snapshot of Cary Retail Sales
Cary's gross retail sales have grown more than 150 percent since 1992 with over $1.3 billion in sales during 1998

And if the retail market is strong, the banking industry in Cary is even stronger. Perhaps nothing symbolizes that more than Preston Corners, which is home to no less than five bank branches. Even as the number of bank branches across the state generally declines, banks are showing no hesitation in building in Cary. Wachovia, for instance, only built four branches in North Carolina in 1994, and two of them were in Cary.