ScoopUSA Newspaper, April 27, 1985—Although Black-owned businesses are expanding in sales and profits, they are falling behind in the marketplace. This is due in part to the intense competition for the Black consumer’s dollar, according to Dr. Andrew F. Brimmer, a member of the Black Enterprise Magazine’s board of economists.
In 1977 (the last year for which the census is available), receipts of Black-owned businesses were 48.6 billion, or 0.32 percent of all U.S. sales. Brimmer, president of the Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm Brimmer & Co., Inc., and a former member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors estimates that 1985 sales at $13.3 billion will represent a decline to .25 of U.S. sales he explains in a feature story in the April issue.
The decline of the market share on the part of Black-owned businesses extends to the Black community itself, says Brimmer.
In 1969, the receipts of Black businesses represented 13.5 percent of the money income received by the Black community– but in 1984, that proportion dropped to 7 percent and is expected to drop to 6.6 percent this year.
“As the income of Black consumers increases,” states Brimmer,” their spending patterns have been concentrated on a widening pattern of goods and services not supplied by black firms. Blacks are also moving to the suburbs, where Black businesses remain primarily in the older neighborhoods where most Blacks continue to live.
The Dynamics have Changed… but the Problem Still Exists…. We Must Support Black Businesses
