The Washington times., 1934-04-28
SPLENDID ROAD
. LINKS TOD.C.
. AID TRADE
Ten Counties Have Marketing
Value Of 10000 People, Third
Of Capital Population

The development of suburban
Washington has brought 10000
people into the city's retail trade
territory-50,146 families who de-
pend entirely or in a substantial
part, on the city's shops for the
needs of their families.
AS the city's realtors have
pushed their developments farther
and farther afield, they have at
tracted to the country a con.
stantly increasing number OF
families who are used to and
insist on metropolitan standards
Of living.
They insist on ready access to
the city where most of them
work and where they have sources
Of necessities, luxurieS and
amusement.
Promote Better Roads
To attract these urban families
% their developments, the real
tors have helped finance better
roads to their properties. Those
roads were the nucleus OF the
almost perfect system OF high
ways which, today, link the city
with the 10 adjacent counties in
Maryland and Virginia, placing
most of their residents within
an hours drive Of washington
shops.
These suburban communities,
insisting on urban standards OF
living, have been a powerful leven
among the native population.
Seeing their new neighbors en-
joying and regarding as neceS-
sites, things they had been ac-
customed to consider as luxuries,
the native population Of these
counties have not been slow to
readjust their own scale OF living
to conform to urban standards.
Centralizes Trade
The development of the roads
which gave the city the trade Of
its transplanted citizens brought
with that trade the patronage OF
tens of thousands Of families
which had been contented with
the limited resources Of the cross
roads or small town store.
Ten counties Immediately ad.
lacent to the city contain 9,547
white families with incomes in
the $1,000 to $4,000 group.
1874 families in the $4,000 to
$4,000 group. .18, ,46O families in
the $4,000 to $1,000 income group
.5,442 families in the $4,000 to
$4,000 group, and 1,176 families
with incomes of over $4,000 per
year. The survey conducted by
the Washington Board of Trade,
according to the technique per-
fected by william J. Reilly, au-
thor of Methods for the Study
Of Retail Relations" shows that
this entire territory is a retail
marketing source equal to a popu-
lation of 10000 people living
within the city proper.
Credit To Realtors
These ten counties buy only
their staple necessities from their
local stores, depending on the
shops of the city for all or
major portion of their extra
needs, such as style merchandise,
furniture, jewelry, cosmetics,
radios, musical instruments, etc.
The proportion of such mer-
chandise which the residents of
this territory buy in Washington
varies from 20 per cent in Cal
vert county to 100 per cent in
Montgomery, Arlington, and Fair
fax counties and in Alexandria
city, and ranges through so per
cent for Anne Arundel and
Prince Georges counties. .. rs per
cent for Charles county. and 80
per cent for Prince William and
Loudoun counties.
It is safe to say that IS per
cent or more of this extra trade
which is enjoyed by the mer-
chants of the city is directly due
to the efforts of the realtors who
have developed the city'S sub
urban centers.
"How will / get there?" "Where will
We 60 over the week-end?" These are
questions hundreds of people are asking
avery daY they can he anSWePed.