Market Area

Penticton Economic Market Area

Penticton is the regional service and market centre for the South Okanagan. It offers a full spectrum of services including professional, commercial, administrative, educational and transportation facilities. For each of these services, different market or trading areas exist, however, for basic analysis the following classifications have been developed along with the corresponding population base.

Primary

The residents of this trading area do most of their day-to-day shopping, and rely almost exclusively on the services and infrastructure facilities available, in Penticton. The driving distance does not generally exceed 20 to 30 minutes from the downtown area of the city. The population within a 30-minute commute is approximately 85,000 persons. It includes the residential centres of Naramata, Kaleden, Summerland, West Bench, Okanagan Falls as well as the other unincorporated regional and rural areas.

Secondary

The residents of the secondary trading area rely on Penticton for larger purchases (appliances, automobiles and recreational sports equipment) as well as specialized goods and services. They customarily shop or do business on a weekly or monthly basis and are prepared to drive the 20 to 60 minutes to the city. The draw is primarily from the southern part of the region and includes Oliver, Osoyoos, Princeton and the rural areas. It includes some of the areas up to Peachland and Westbank, although the larger centre of Kelowna acts as a much greater drawing factor. It is estimated that the trading area population is 110,000 persons. It should be noted that market area is dependent upon the type, scale of development and existing competition in the service or product line.

Supplementary

The third level of market extends outside the Southern Okanagan and captures a much larger region. Based upon the population and service level of Penticton, the City competes with the much larger community of Kelowna. There are instances where special comparison shopping and incidental purchases will be made from a customer base of the total Okanagan Valley. Given the mature nature of the population, excellent highways and relatively short driving time, Penticton receives more than its fair share of the regional market. It is assumed that the regional market currently comprises more than 250,000 persons.

Population of Towns in the RDOS

Settlement Area (sq/km) 2006 Census
Kaleden 4.33 1,289
Keremeos 2.11 1,289
Naramata 8.13 1,791
Oliver 4.88 4,370
Osoyoos 8.76 4,752
Princeton 10.24 2,677
Summerland 70.02 10,828
Penticton 42.42 31,909
Okanagan-Similkameen RD 10,413.44 79,475

Source: Statistics Canada, Census of Population 2006

Note: Population and boundary data are not available for the unincorporated area of Okanagan Falls.

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