By Laura Berthold Monteros
Where do Altadenans shop? What business would they like to see in town?
Apparently, Trader Joe's.
The Altadena Chamber of Commerce revealed a sampling of the results of its online survey Thursday night, and the survey says that, besides a TJ's., people would like to see more restaurants, and at least some are interested in a big box store such as Home Depot or Costco.
Pictured: Chamber vice president Ed Meyers presents the survey results.
The findings were discussed at the Chamber's monthly mixer at the Altadena Community Center. About 20 people attended.
The results come from an online survey the Chamber invited residents to participate in that was posted from November 2010 to April 2011. 385 took the survey and 346 completed it. Full results will be posted sometime Friday at www.surveyaltadena.com.
The point of the survey is not to recommend specific action, said Ed Meyers, vice president of the Chamber.
“We want to gather data that gives us business trends and shopping trends and pass that back to the stakeholders so they can better market their business to the community,” Meyers told altadenablog. “We’re not drawing conclusions, we’re just presenting information.”
Trader Joe’s came out on top in the grocery store portion of the survey, he noted, but that might not mean the Chamber would share the data with TJ’s hoping to attract a store. It might make more sense to present it to Ralph’s to encourage the store to be more responsive to residents.
PIctured: about 20 people attended the mixer to see the survey results.
The exodus of Altadenans to Trader Joe’s was clear in the charts Meyers presented during the program; nearly 59 percent of respondents shop at the Hastings Ranch store. About a third of respondents shop at the La Cañada or Lake Avenue stores. (For this question, respondents could choose more than one store so the percentages add up to more than 100 percent.)
Food seems to be on the minds of a lot of folks; 75 percent of respondents want more restaurants in town. Yet of the top five Altadena businesses they frequent, only one is an eatery. In order, Altadena Hardware is number one, followed by Rite Aid, Steve’s Pets, Super King, and Coffee Gallery.
Other businesses that at least some Altadenans want are big boxes (Home Depot, Costco) and independent book and stationery stores.
Two questions emerged in the discussions prior to the presentation and the Q & A afterwards. The first was how the word got out and why so few people seemed to know about it.
“We posted on altadenablog and Patch,” Meyers told altadenablog. “We passed out cards at Christmas Tree Lane.”
He emphasized that this is the first survey of any kind that has been done since the 1986 community standards survey, and said, “We will learn and expand where we post.”
Leslie Aitken asked, “How accurate as a representation is this survey? Three-hundred-fifty out 40,000? How is it skewed? I’ve been out of the loop and just don’t know how to get into the loop.”
She commented that she thought the survey was out of touch with where people actually go. She mentioned Baja Fresh market on Fair Oaks (formerly King Ranch and before that Jack’s Apple). The people who shop there are mostly Latino, she said, and walk to the market. She also mentioned the heavy traffic at Super King.
“How does it skew to the actual population?” she asked.
Aitken was not the only one who questioned the demographics. This reporter asked if the survey was available in Spanish and Armenian, which it wasn’t, and if the west side was equally represented with the east side of Altadena.
Location was not part of the demographic information collected, Meyers said, but it might be possible to get an idea from the addresses submitted at the end of the survey in the optional drawing for $150 in cash. Demographic questions were limited to gender, age, income, household size, and length of residency in Altadena.
Meyers said that location, at least in terms of west, central, and east, might be considered if a survey is done in the future. “If we went down that path again, we would try to learn,” he said. “So spend more time on west, east, or central. This is the first round.”
Lori Webster, a member of the board of the Chamber, said, “As a group, we have to figure out how to reach these different groups or we are not going to progress very far.”
Meyers added, “As a chamber, we want to be a resource to help people to jump over obstacles.” A redesigned website with a resource page will be one of those aids, he said.
Doug Colliflower, treasurer of the Altadena Chamber, said that new community standards are in the works. There will be a committee, along with a hired consultant, which will review the current standards. The Fifth District will foot the bill for the consultant.
“A lot of these issues will be addressed,” Colliflower stated, adding that there will be community meetings for input.
