Dining In, In-Store Shopping Rebounding In Metro Denver: Report

DENVER, CO — Shoppers and diners across the U.S. are visiting businesses at higher rates amid the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, but the offline retail industry is rebounding at higher rates in some metros, according to a new report.

The data science team at Zenreach analyzed the regions with the highest increase in visits, by percent, since Jan. 1.

Denver's metro area was ranked No. 6, with an 85.03 percent increase:

1. Pittsburgh (+249.74 percent)
2. Santa Maria-Santa Barbara (150.65 percent)
3. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington (109.81 percent)
4. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin (106.28 percent)
5. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad (104.27 percent)
6. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood (85.03 percent)
7. Tucson (83.76 percent)
8. Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom (73.46 percent)
9. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro (70.68 percent)
10. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (66.14 percent)

In-store visits have increased across the U.S. by 28.5 percent over the last three months, according to the report.

Colorado’s business leaders are feeling increasingly hopeful about the state’s economy heading into the second quarter of 2021, according to the Business Research Division at the University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business.

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Business confidence increased in six economic categories — state economy, national economy, industry sales, industry profits, industry hiring and capital expenditures — from the first to second quarter of 2021, the Leeds Business Confidence Index shows.

When looking ahead to the third quarter, panelists gave the highest overall score in the 19-year history of the index — 68.8. Scores below 50 indicate pessimism, and scores above 50 indicate optimism.

For its second quarter results, the team surveyed 278 panelists from March 1 to March 22, researchers said.

“It will still take many months for the jobs lost during the COVID-19 pandemic to come back to Colorado,” Richard Wobbekind, senior economist at the Leeds School of Business, said in a statement.

“But these latest findings suggest that we’re heading in the right direction.”

Despite these positive outlooks, employment in Colorado remains down compared to pre-pandemic levels, the report shows. Employment rates remained down 5.6 percent in February compared to the same time last year, reflecting 156,700 fewer jobs. Just over 35 percent of panelists expect that employment in Colorado won’t return to pre-pandemic levels until 2022, according to the index.

>> Read the full Leeds Business Confidence Index here.