Study says Jackson has better money management skills

At the risk of stoking the rivalry between the two towns, it seems people in Jackson, on average, have more money management savvy than most Cape Girardeau residents.

So says a new study, which compared the typical financial acumen of people in more than 2,500 American cities, large, small and in between. Among them were several Southeast Missouri communities, including Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Sikeston and Poplar Bluff, and a handful of other area municipalities such as Carbondale, Illinois, and Paducah, Kentucky.

The study, conducted by the online personal finance website WalletHub and released last week, compared 10 key indicators of money management skills such as credit scores, debt-to-income ratios and the average number of late payments residents of each community made during a typical year. The study only factored in the aggregate financial habits of employed people 16 and older.

Based on the data, WalletHub then ranked each of the study's 2,572 communities.

With a median credit score of 686, debt-to-income ratios of 5.04% for credit cards, 258.95% for mortgages, 35.67% for car loans and 53.65% for student loans, Cape Girardeau ranked No. 1,666 (one spot ahead of Freeport, New York, which ranked 1,667th and one spot behind Ceres, California) placing Cape in the study's 35th percentile.

Meanwhile, Jackson's median credit score, according to the study, is 726, and debt-to-income ratios in Jackson are 5.05% for credit cards, 268.27% for mortgages, 33.84% for car loans and 40.49% for student loans. At No. 928, Jackson tied with Hudson, New Hampshire, and ranked in the 64th percentile.

Elsewhere in Southeast Missouri, the two other communities in the study were Sikeston, ranking 1,954th and in the 24th percentile, and Poplar Bluff, placing near the bottom of the list in 2,412th place, which was the 6th percentile.

Residents of Carbondale didn't fare much better. The study ranked Carbondale No. 2,395 (7th percentile), but Paducah placed 1,392nd on the list, which was in the 46th percentile.

Of all Missouri communities in the study, Chesterfield was the only one to rank in the nation's top 100, checking in at No. 37 (the 99th percentile).

Among other Missouri cities, Columbia placed 1,028th, Jefferson City checked in at No. 1,170, Joplin placed 1,285th, Kansas City ranked 1,470th, Springfield was No. 1,544, and St. Louis edged out West Memphis, Arkansas, for 2,087th place on the list.

According to the study, people who live in Cupertino, California, are, on average, the nation's best money managers with relatively high credit scores, lower than average debt-to-income ratios, and fewer than one late payment per year on their bills.

On the other end of the spectrum, residents of Fairburn, Georgia, have substantially higher debt-to-income ratios and makes late payments more than eight times a year, which helped earn that community the ranking of 2,572 (last place) in the study.

The entire study, including methodology, is available online at www.wallethub.com/edu/best-cities-at-money-management/19256.

No word whether retailers' plans will impact Cape

A pair of national retailers with outlets in Cape Girardeau are planning to close several locations in 2021, but there's no indication the closings will affect the local stores.

L Brands, parent company of Victoria's Secret, announced plans last week to close as many as 50 U.S. locations this year after closing almost 250 of its women's lingerie outlets in 2020. However, the company has not indicated which stores will be shuttered in the coming months. Victoria's Secret has an outlet near center court in Cape Girardeau's West Park Mall.

Also last week, the Best Buy CEO Corie Barry announced the electronic retailer's quarterly earnings Thursday and said the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift from brick-and-mortar shopping to online sales.

"We have closed approximately 20 large-format locations each of the past two years and expect to close a higher number this year," he said. However, he did not indicate where those closings might occur. In Cape Girardeau, Best Buy has an outlet at 3026 William St.

Meanwhile, two other national retailers with Cape Girardeau locations have announced expansions of their merchandise lines.

Sephora, currently located within J.C. Penney at West Park Mall, has announced it will open 260 stores this year with several of them inside Kohl's department stores. Kohl's and Sephora release a list of the first 200 locations last week. The Cape Girardeau Kohl's, 315 Shirley Drive, was not on the initial list, which included stores in Lee's Summit, Kansas City and Springfield, Missouri.

Target, which has a Cape Girardeau location on Siemers Drive, also announced last week a handful of its stores are getting an "Apple upgrade." Seventeen Target outlets — located in California, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania — will offer what the retailer calls an "enhanced Apple Shopping experience" beginning this spring with an expanded inventory of Apple products.

Target says the "mini Apple shop" concept will expand into more locations later this year, but there's no indication at this time whether Cape Girardeau will get a bite of the Apple.

New retail space planned near Mount Auburn and William

Drury Southwest plans to break ground soon for construction of a 7,800-square-foot commercial building on William Street near Mount Auburn Road on a parcel formerly occupied by Ruby Tuesday.

The new building, to be known as Auburn Center, will have space for as many as four or five yet-to-be-identified tenants, according to Adrienne Henry of DSW's real estate and leasing office.

Ruby Tuesday closed in the spring of 2019 and was demolished in early 2020.

Community college efforts progressing

I spoke the other day to Rich Payne, who heads a steering committee looking into the feasibility of creating a two-year community college with campuses in Cape Girardeau and Perryville, Missouri. If it becomes reality, it would be Missouri's 13th community college and would focus on technical skills training.

Rich, who retired in 2018 after 18 years as director of the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center, said the committee has been working with a consulting group and state education authorities to develop a needs analysis study. The study, he said, will look at the region's current and future employment needs, economic factors, occupational data and potential gaps in area workforce development.

The next step, he said, will be to conduct a community survey this spring of various stakeholder groups, including employers, students, civic leaders and the general public, to gauge the potential need for a community college.

More information about the survey will be available when it goes live online in a few weeks, he said.

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