S.L. shoppers unfazed

Most Salt Lake City residents say they have not changed their downtown shopping habits even as much of the city's heart is being torn up — and torn down.

A new Dan Jones & Associates poll, commissioned by the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV and conducted last Tuesday and Wednesday, found that 63 percent of respondents say the construction throughout downtown has not substantially changed their shopping habits.

The poll questioned 413 residents and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

That 63 percent, apparently, never shopped much at Crossroads Plaza.

That downtown mall has closed, and adjacent ZCMI Center is becoming more and more of a ghost town as the majority of stores have relocated or closed in preparation for the center's closure, expected to occur in the coming months.

Both malls, as well as much of the downtown blocks they sit on, will be torn down to make way for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' 20-acre City Creek Center project, an indoor-outdoor mix of retail, residential and office space set to open in mid-2011.

In addition, the Utah Transit Authority is extending its light-rail line from its current dead end on South Temple at 400 West. The line will run south on 400 West, then west on 200 South, and south on 600 West, where it will join the new intermodal transit hub.

That work has had two blocks of 400 West and some of 200 South under heavy construction, with lanes closed and traffic stymied right in front of The Gateway shopping center.

The poll found that 19 percent said their shopping habits had definitely changed since the start of construction, while 17 percent said they had somewhat changed.

The poll, however, does not give any indication of how suburban shoppers or visitors from nearby counties are reacting to the construction. All respondents lived within Salt Lake City proper.

Those whose habits have stayed the same overwhelmingly say they expect them not to change: 87 percent said they anticipate construction will probably or definitely not affect the way they shop.

Of those whose habits had changed, 27 percent said they had done most of their shopping at Murray's Fashion Place Mall instead of where they used to shop. The Gateway is the new haunt for 13 percent, and Trolley Square has picked up the business of 5 percent.

However, a plurality of those whose habits had changed — 48 percent — named as their new favorite place to shop something other than the options listed by the pollster. Among the most popular "other" responses, former downtown shoppers are going to Sugar House, Valley Fair Mall, Wal-Mart, Costco, Brickyard Plaza, Cottonwood Mall, Foothill Village or the Internet to make their purchases.