ROANOKE SALES DOWN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 12, 1993                   TAG: 9303120202
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
ROANOKE SALES DOWN
Taxable retail sales in the Roanoke Valley slipped in January to almost $8 million less than in January 1992, Virginia's Department of Taxation reported Thursday.
Total sales were down in Roanoke and Salem and only slightly higher in Roanoke County. Jim Grisso, acting finance director in Roanoke, could not give a reason for the decline.
Many local officials had been expecting the January sales figures to be higher than usual for the month.
That's because the sales reported for December were lower than expected because they did not include large supermarket returns.
Grocers reported sales on a different schedule from other merchants and their December results were expected to spill over into January.
The trend toward lower sales continued in Western Virginia, where 20 of 30 localities showed January declines.
Statewide, taxable sales for January were up 15.1 percent.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB