The Rocky Mount shopping district is serving a population of about 300,000 people, according to Alan Matthews, Rocky Mount Area Chamber of Commerce director of business recruitment.

“Rocky Mount’s population is about 60,000 people, and our area is the commerce center of a five-county region (Nash, Edgecombe, Wilson, Halifax, Northampton) with a population of about 300,000 people,” Matthews said, “and that means those people can get to the Rocky Mount area to shop in 15-30 minutes because of our location, with highways U.S. 64 and Interstate 95.”

Matthews said that retailers looking for a place to locate their business are more interested in ‘drive time’ ... how long it takes a consumer to get to their shops.

With U.S. 64 and I-95 allowing speeds of 70 mph, the drive time is shorter.

“Given the fact that the number of consumers shopping here has increased, we are seeing an upswing of 2 percent in the local economy,” he said.

Shopping population and short drive-time are important factors in attracting retailers, Matthews said. He said that, for instance, Sam’s Club might never have located here without the accessibility and the number of shoppers coming here to shop.

Matthews called Golden East Crossing mall “the only vibrant enclosed mall in our shopping area.”

He said that Golden East Crossing does not have much turnover and that it has good “anchor” tenants.

“The mall has maintained a 96 percent occupancy rate,” he said.

The Twin Counties has approximately 3 million square feet of shopping space, he said.

“I survey it twice a year, and my June survey showed a 92 percent occupancy rate,” Matthews said.

“Shopping is still great in the Nash-Edgecombe-Rocky Mount area, and in spite of the worst economic situation in our country and our state in a long time, retail shopping in this area makes a yearly economic impact that exceeds 2 billion dollars.”