Aspen retailers have big July, up 9 percent
Aspen retailers in July hauled in $83 million, putting them 9 percent ahead of the same month in 2017, according to the city of Aspen’s monthly sales tax consumption report that was issued Monday.
Fueled by the $23.2 million generated by the accommodations industry, the July figures also helped put Aspen retailers 6 percent ahead for the first 7 months of the year compared with January-through-July of 2017. Retailers have rung up $459 million through July, according to the report.
In addition to accommodations, other Aspen retail sectors posted the following figures in July, which the city says accounts for roughly 10.5 percent of its total sales tax collections.
• Restaurants/bars — $17.1 million, up 1 percent from July 2017
• Sports equipment/clothing —$3.9 million, down 1 percent
• Clothing — $8.5 million, up 10 percent
• Food/drug — $6.5 million, up 1 percent
• Liquor — $1.2 million, up 2 percent
• Miscellaneous — $6.1 million, up 16 percent
• Construction — $4.5 million, up 29 percent
• Luxury goods — $4.2 million, up 14 percent
• Utilities — $4.2 million, up 46 percent
• Automobile — $2.5 million, up 43 percent
• Marijuana — $1.1 million, down 11 percent
Aspen City Council considers additional increases to food tax refund
Just as everyone was getting used to the $15 increase in the food tax refund, Aspen City Council unanimously agreed that they’d like to see it increase even more.