The majority of shoppers in the Cape Girardeau retail market -- 77 percent -- visit the downtown area to dine, and 53 percent make the trip downtown to shop, surveys say.

Sixty percent of customers who were surveyed rate downtown shopping as fair.

Attitudes about shopping downtown were consistent on a couple of points -- friendliness of sales people and a safe environment for shopping -- during surveys of customers and merchants by the community and economic development group of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Some negatives: parking, traffic flow, shopping hours, merchandise selection and variety of stores.

These were among findings of three business and customer surveys and a focus group conducted in business locations at West Park Mall, Town Plaza Shopping Center and the downtown.

One of the surveys was conducted by Southeast Missouri State University's department of marketing under the direction of associate professor Judy A. Wiles.

The surveys were commissioned by the Cape Girardeau Community Pride Coalition and are a first step toward a goal of establishing a Main Street Program.

Julie Fesenmaier of the Laboratory for Community and Economic Development at the University of Illinois and Wiles were on hand at a meeting Thursday at Southeast Missouri State University's Dempster Hall. Preliminary results of the survey were presented to a large gathering of business people, city and chamber officials.

Wiles and a number of marketing students presented the Southeast Missouri State University survey and focus group findings. Fesenmaier presented the University of Illinois results.

Although the surveys were completely different, they all arrived at some of the same conclusions.

Downtown customers were optimistic about the future of downtown, said Fesenmaier. "About half of those responding believe business conditions have improved downtown over the past five years, and 66 percent believe conditions will continue to improve.

The surveys all identified a number of issues which could be addressed by the local business community to improve conditions in the downtown business climate.

According to the Southeast survey, more than 56 percent of customer respondents were in favor of Sunday hours. And although 73 percent of businesses agree they should remain open at least one evening a week, only 59 percent indicated they were willing to open one night.

Some wishes for downtown: a book store, chain retail outlet and a men's clothing store.

The survey indicated that visitors liked the annual Riverfest, Music Fest and Christmas Parade.

The University of Illinois survey cited the same type of problems for downtown.

Customers say they are most influenced by advertising in newspapers (91 percent), radio (86 percent), and televison (85 percent), said Fesenmaier. She said most businesses favor yellow-page advertising (48 percent), newspaper (34 percent), direct mail (32 percent), Internet (26 percent), and radio (23 percent) as types of advertising used most often.

Other survey statistics show that only a third of the businesses participate in local parades and festivals. Only 10 percent participate in farmers markets and 8 percent in sidewalk sales.

Meanwhile, 81 percent of the survey participants attend the local festivals, 71 percent attend parades and almost half attend farmers markets. Thirty-six percent say they shop sidewalk sales.