The State of Georgetown 2023

As alluded to in my monthly ANC update, I finally conducted my annual(ish) census of commercial establishments in Georgetown. It’s a survey I’ve been doing since I started this website in 2008, and so the accumulated data reflects the ebbs and flows of the Georgetown retail community. And the overall message from this year is that we are still in a steady flow following the stark ebb that Covid brought us.

But before I get to the numbers, I need to issue my typical disclaimer: First, it’s important to know that my counting is more of an art than a science. The term “establishments” as used here refers to just about all commercial establishments serving the general public: retail stores, restaurants, salons, gyms, etc. I don’t count pure office space. The rule of thumb I use is if you can walk in without an appointment, I count it. But again, sometimes it’s a close call (for instance, I count realtors but not lawyers). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Overall Picture

Last year was the first year I performed a count since before Covid. And the story of last year’s numbers was that it wasn’t as bad as expected! The overall number was down, obviously, but not that bad. In 2019 I counted 509 establishments, which was near a record high. Last year I counted 451. That’s about an 11% drop. Significant, but not catastrophic. This year the numbers inched up further. I counted 464 establishments this year. (And keep in mind that my count is very much a snapshot. Stores may be just days away from opening, but I don’t count them).

That net gain represents about a 3% gain. Behind that net gain I counted 62 openings and 45 closures. I’d call that strong and steady as you can see by comparing to the last ten years:

As you can see the closure total spiked last year, mostly because of Covid, but also because I was collecting essentially three years of data into one year. This causes the chart to be a little misleading. The fact that just about as many establishments opened over the last year as opened between 2019 and 2022 is a great sign (or it illustrates how bad Covid was on business openings!). Put it this way: in a normal year over the past ten, I typically counted 37 openings and 41 closures. That puts this year’s opening rate up 68% over par (under par? Better than par, in either event.) And closures are up just 10% versus par.

Chains vs. Independents

One of the main reasons I started conducting this count was to push back against the widely held perception that Georgetown is only mall chain stores. While it may sometimes feel that way (depending on what block you’re on), as a matter of pure head count, Georgetown has always had a clear majority of independent establishments.

There are 302 independent establishments out of the 464 total. That’s a rate of 65%. A big chunk of those establishments are restaurants, which in Georgetown thankfully are mostly independent/local. Even still, if you look at all establishments other than restaurants, they are still majority independent at 59%.

Variety

The variety of establishments has remained fairly stable over the years. The largest category remains restaurants, with clothing stores a close second, and salons comfortably back at third:

I started counting cannabis stores for the first time this year. I came up with a total of 15 (but given the often shady nature of these establishments, I easily could have missed some). With new rules coming concerning these shops, I hope that number comes down considerably next time I count!

But all in all, Iike I say every year: the main take-away from all of this is that one of the main benefits of living in Georgetown is having nearly 500 commercial establishments just steps away. I hope over the next couple counts we can get that “nearly 500” switched back to “over 500”!