Author Archives: admin

Cookies and Bagels

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Bagel shops and cookie shops have both seen a decline in numbers during the first decade of this century while the number of coffee shops has more than doubled. An interesting shift seems to be taking place.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2002 and 2007
Market size: Number of Bagel Shops, 3,203 and 3,072 respectively
Market size: Number of Cookie Shops, 1,025 and 951 respectively
Source: “2007 Economic Census: Sector 72: Accommodation and Food Services,” June 22, 2010, available online here.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Pizza Market

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Data represent the estimated number of pizzas sold per year in the United States. Seventeen percent of restaurants in the United States are pizzerias.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2009
Market size: 3 billion pizzas
Source: “Pizza Facts,” Guido’s Premium Pizza, September 27, 2010 available online here.
Original Source: Blumenfield and Associates; Food Industry News.

Prefabricated Wooden Buildings

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This post shows the size of the manufacturer’s market for prefabricated stationary wood buildings sold in precut packages. It is the value of these building packages to the manufacturer and doesn’t include the costs of transportation.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2002 and 2008
Market size: $668.5 million and $407.8 million respectively
Source: Annual Survey of Manufactures 2008, March 30, 2010, available online here and the Annual Survey of Manufacturers 2003.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Women’s and Girls’ Sports Uniform Production

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While textile and apparel industries used to be an important sector in the United States they are among many manufacturing industries that have moved out of the United States over the last decades, for the most part. Nonetheless, there are still a few companies sewing and making garments in this country and their activities are tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau annually. Makers of women’s and girls’ team sports uniforms saw a drop in production between 2007 and 2008 of 21%. This is a large drop for a single year. Worth noting is the fact that purchases of women’s and girls’ team sports uniforms may not be down at all. It is the production of those uniforms in the United States that has fallen sharply.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2007 and 2008
Market size: $51.6 million and $40.8 million respectively
Source: Annual Survey of Manufactures 2008, March 30, 2010, available online here.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Team Sports Uniforms, Men’s and Boys’

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While textiles used to be an important industry in the United States it is one of the industries that has moved out of the United States for the most part. Nonetheless, there are still a few companies sewing and making garments in this country and those involved with making men’s and boys’ uniforms has actually seen a small increase in production between 2007 and 2008. Since earlier in the decade, however, production figures are down and follow an overall downward trajectory along with all other apparel making industries in the United States. Tomorrow we’ll have the women’s and girls’ team sports uniforms market.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2007 and 2008
Market size: $185.3 million and $191.8 million respectively
Source: Annual Survey of Manufactures 2008, March 30, 2010, available online here.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Retail Bakery Products

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Total retail bakery production in the United States actually fell by 6% between 2007 and 2008. Most other bakery product categories saw a rise in production from 2007 to 2008. The market size listed here is not a retail sales figure; it is a production value and should be seen as more akin to a wholesale figure.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2007 and 2008
Market size: $3.060 billion and 2.876 billion respectively
Source: Annual Survey of Manufactures 2008, March 30, 2010, available online here.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Fishery Production

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Total fishery production includes the domestic catch as well as imported seafood—fin fish and shellfish. The domestic catch represents 45% of total production and imported fish (fin and shell) represent the remaining 55%.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2007
Market size: 20.5 million lbs.(live weight)
Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2010, Table 861, December 2009 available online here.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fishery Service.

Small Hedge Fund Market

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The global financial crisis that started in 2008 has had enormous ramifications of many sorts. Not surprisingly the financial sector itself has seen quite a lot of restructuring in the period since then. One area of great change has been the number of small hedge funds in existence. According to a New York Times article on the subject, many such funds are being closed down so as to eliminate their recent history of returns, or, more accurately, lack thereof. Then, the same people behind these funds simply open new funds with a clear record. Clearly this does not occur with most such small hedge funds since their numbers have fallen by 30% (and assets under management by approximately 21.5%) since peaking in number in 2007.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2007 and 2010
Market size: 12,000 and 8,400 funds respectively
Source: “Hedge Fund Managers Set Up for New Act,” The New York Times, September 17, 2010, page B1 available online here.
Original source: Heidrick & Struggles

Computer Training Centers

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The number of educational service providing establishments in the United States grew by 20% between 2002 and 2007, from 49,319 establishments to 61,385. However, the number of establishments dedicated to doing computer training—from how to use computers to networking and programming them—actually fell during the period. While this may have been explained by there having been a consolidation within the sector, fewer but larger establsihments, it turns out that was not the case. Employment within this particular sector of educational services—computer training—also fell, from 29.3 thousand to 17.4 thousand.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2002 and 2007
Market size: 2,988 and 2,211 establishments respectively
Source: “2007 Economic Census: Sector 61: Educational Services,” June 29, 2010, available online here.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Institutes of Higher Education

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This market size measures the number of degree-granting institutes of higher education. The enrollment figure excludes students taking classes by mail, radio or TV as well as students attending branches of U.S. institutions operated outside the United States.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2006
Market size: 4,352 institutions enrolling 17.76 million students
Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2010, Table 271, December 2009 available online here.
Original Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census and the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics

Dog and Cat Food

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Dog Food

The market for pet care products in the United States is quite large and according to one study, by the firm Packaged Facts, pet food represented only 33.6% of that overall market in 2008, down from 35.1% of the market in 2004. The market sizes presented here are not retail sales figures. They are figures based on the value of manufacturers shipments, thus closer to wholesale prices.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2007 and 2008
Market size: $13.5 billion and $15.9 billion respectively
Source: Annual Survey of Manufactures 2008, March 30, 2010, available online here.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

E-Reader Shipments

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The market for eBooks is growing and so is the market for the devices used to read those books. As is often the case with a new electronic device, e-reader sales and shipments are in an exceptional period of growth and market penetration. Shipments of e-readers more than doubled between 2009 and 2010. The market sizes presented here do not include Apple’s new iPad which is a hybrid device designed to serve as an e-reader as well as a sort of large iPod Touch.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2009 and 2010
Market size: 5 million units and 11 million units respectively
Source: The New York Times, Sunday Business, September 12, 2010, page 3
Original source: iSuppli

Halal Food Market in France

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France has the largest Muslim population in Europe. According to the daily newspaper Le Figaro, “spending per household on halal food has grown twentyfold.” The availability of halal foods are increasingly not limited to small local shops. Supermarkets and some restaurants now offer halal foods also. Data are estimated.

Geographic reference: France
Year: 2010
Market size: $5.7 billion
Source: Maïa de la Baume, “Halal Foods Expand Reach in France,” The New York Times, September 8, 2010 available online here.

Peanut Consumption

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture tracks the production and consumption of a long list of agricultural products, reporting on them annually. The most recent USDA report on peanuts shows that on average Americans eat 6.3 pounds of shelled peanuts (or the equivalent in the form of peanut butter or other products containing peanuts) annually, up a half pound from per capita consumption rates a decade earlier.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2008
Market size: 2.6 billion lbs.
Source: Food Availablity: Spreadsheets, February 2010 available online here.
Original source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

U.S. Book Sales Made Through “Bricks & Mortar” Book Stores

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Traditional bricks & mortar book stores have been losing ground in terms of market share of all book sales in the United States for a decade now. While the total volume of books sold is on the rise, those sold by companies that run bricks & mortar book stores have declined from 61.5% in 1997 to 50% in 2007. The rise of Amazon to prominence in the book selling market is, of course, a significant reason for this shift. Traditional booksellers are working hard to recapture their prominence in the retailing of books by establishing complex networks for selling electronically and selling eBooks.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 1997 and 2007
Market size: $9.71 billion and $12.33 billion respectively
Source: 1997 Economic Census: Sector 44: Retail Trade: Merchandise Line Sales: Merchandise Lines by Kind of Business and 2007 Economic Census: Sector 44: Retail Trade: Merchandise Line Sales: Merchandise Lines by Kind of Business for the United States: 2007, October 30, 2009. The 1997 data is available online here and the 2007 data is available online here. The September 3, 2010 Dwarf Planet Press blog post presents these Census Bureau data in a summarized fashion. Here’s a link to that post.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Motion Picture and Video Industries

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This industry comprises the whole large group of companies engaged primarily in the production and/or distribution of motion pictures, videos, television programs, or commercials; in the exhibition of motion pictures; or in the provision of postproduction and related services.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2002 and 2007
Market size: $62 billion and $80 billion respectively
Source: 2002 Economic Census and 2007 Economic Census, October 30, 2009. The 2007 data on the Information sector is available online here.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census

Market for Books, Print Books

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When it comes to sales growth rates, completely new products have a vast advantage over mature products. Within the book business, eBooks are the new thing right now. As the sale of eBooks continue to rise quickly, many wonder what impact they will have on the sale of printed books. The market sizes listed here are for print books, pBooks if you will, and do not include eBook or audiobook sales.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2003 and 2009
Market size: $22.2 billion and $23.4 billion respectively
Source: Association of American Publishers, 2009 S1 Report, February 2010, page 2 available online here.
Original source: AAP and Management Practice

Market for eBooks… thus far

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When it comes to sales growth rates, completely new products have a vast advantage over mature products. Within the book business, eBooks are the new thing right now. As the publishing world races to keep up with the faster moving high technology world and its eReader offerings, the market for eBooks will likely show continued rapid growth over the next decade.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2003 and 2009
Market size: $19.7 million and $313.2 million respectively
Source: Association of American Publishers, 2009 S1 Report, February 2010, page 2 available online here.
Original source: AAP and Management Practice

Recreational Boat Market

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Recreational boats

North America is the largest geographical market for recreational boats but growth in this market is anticipated primarily in Europe and the Asia-Pacific areas. Trends show that higher-end and luxury boats will be the area of most market growth in the coming years. The market size listed for 2014 is a forecast based on the source’s research.

Geographic reference: World
Year: 2008 and 2014
Market size: $23.9 billion and $25.8 billion respectively
Source: Travel & Leisure Close-Up, January 15, 2010.
Original source: Research and Markets

Petroleum Products

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This market size covers petroleum product production and is based on wholesale prices. It can be broken into five product categories, each listed here with its respective share of the market as a percentage, in parentheses: gasoline (51.23%); light fuel oils (32.97%); jet fuel (11.20%); heavy fuel oils (4.14%); and kerosene, excluding jet fuel (0.46%).

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2008
Market size: $678.1 billion
Source: Annual Survey of Manufactures, 2008, March 30, 2010 available online here.
Original source: U.S. Bureau of the Census