Tourism has created a decline in the diversity of products available locally, according to a recently released study.

The research was conducted by Dr. Alex Thomas, a Hartwick resident and sociology professor at SUNY Oneonta, and Lori Cardona, a history major. The study, published by the SUNY Oneonta Center for Social Science Research, shows that the retail base in the Cooperstown area grew between 1997 and 2001. According to the report, the growth was uneven and some segments of the retail economy actually declined.

The study coded retail businesses according to their products and desired market in urbanized sections of the Cooperstown area. Shops catering to tourists showed the most growth. Specialty shops not directly related to baseball, such as craft stores and art galleries, increased from 29.9 percent in 1997 to 36.9 percent of retail businesses in 2001. Restaurants remained steady at around a quarter of retail establishments. Community oriented stores such as grocery stores and pharmacies, dropped from about a third in 1997 to only 20.5 percent in 2001.

Thomas and Cardona concluded that the decline in community-oriented shops is due to the surge in the tourism trade. The two major shopping districts, downtown Cooperstown and the "East Hartwick corridor," were studied. Cooperstown, with approximately eighty businesses, is the larger district, but Hartwick experienced the most growth.

"Downtown Cooperstown witnessed a restructuring of retail functions," wrote Thomas and Cardona.

"The East Hartwick corridor, comprising of the hamlets of Index, Hyde Park, and Hartwick Seminary, experienced growth almost exclusively in tourism related activities."

The Hartwick Seminary corridor experienced a seventy-five percent growth rate between the two years of the study, Thomas said, from 20 establishments to 35. The change in the number of downtown businesses in Cooperstown was nominal, but some businesses, like The Cupboard, were turned into baseball shops.

"In the village it means people are increasingly dependent on going outside the village for goods and services, and there's a possibility of that trend continuing. The economy supports baseball oriented stores more than stores aimed at local people," Thomas said.

Many businesses are driven from Main Street because the rents are in a range affordable mainly to baseball shops, Thomas said. The equilibrium in the village is off because of the cost of rents.

"If things continue as they do, these trends will probably continue until there's a gradual takeover of downtown, a forcing out of stores aimed at locals. I don't want to say they'll be pushed into the suburbs because to have a suburb you have to have an 'urb' first. But they are getting pushed off Main Street."

Thomas said that the decline of diversity in local products is likely accompanied by other quality of life issues.

"This is a continuation of trends that everybody already knew about," Thomas said Tuesday. "There are no surprises here."