Oklahoma: Where Headwinds Go Sweeping Down The Plain

Most people know Oklahoma for the musical and will start singing unprompted whenever the state’s name is mentioned.

But while winds are still sweeping down the plain in the state that is always OK by nature, it is not exactly filling the sales of the state’s store front businesses, which tend to be trailing in most metrics that our Store Front Business Index measures.

By The Store Front Numbers

The Sooner State seems like it must be a bit later, at least in terms of catching up to growth seen in the central part of the country. Oklahoma lagged on every metric, with 2.3 percent growth seen overall, while the most egregious trailing came from the creation of new establishments at 0.6 percent versus the overall nation at 2 percent and with real wages up 3.6 percent for the state year over year, below the nation at 4.9 percent and the region at 5 percent.

The best guess for the primary vote here would be that people may be voting with their pocketbooks.