Lawrence consumers are continuing to do their best impersonation of the Energizer bunny. They keep going and going and going. The latest numbers show that retail sales in Lawrence increased for the seventh straight month.

The new report measures retail spending for the mid-April to mid-May time period. And as they say in my house, April showers bring May flowers, a set of designer gardening gloves, a platinum-plated garden spade, and a new diamond tennis bracelet — because it can’t all be about toiling away in the garden. All that is to say, consumer sales in Lawrence were up by 9.4 percent compared with the same one-month period a year ago.

Thus far we have six sales tax reports in for 2014 and, year-to-date retail spending is up 4.7 percent for the year. That growth rate is more than double the 2.1 percent growth in sales that was posted in 2013. If the pace continues — and that is a bit like counting your Gucci handbags before the UPS driver delivers them — this would be the third year out of four that sales tax collections have grown by more than 4 percent. And get this, you have to go all the way back to the 1996-1999 time period to find the last time that sales tax collections have grown by more than 4 percent in three out of four years. I don’t know exactly what that means, other than we’re in a pretty good stretch right now.

As for how we are doing compared with other retail centers in the state, we’re right in line. It is worth noting that the city actually is posting better growth rates than one market that traditionally sucks dollars away from Lawrence: Topeka.
Here’s a look:

• Dodge City: up 0.1 percent

• Emporia: up 6.4 percent

• Garden City: up 6.8 percent

• Hays: down 19.3 percent

• Hutchinson: up 3.6 percent

• Junction City: up 1.2 percent

• Kansas City: up 3.4 percent

• Leawood: up 0.8 percent

• Lenexa: up 4.9 percent

• Manhattan: up 1.7 percent

• Ottawa: up 4.7 percent

• Overland Park: up 5.4 percent

• City of Shawnee: 5.8 percent

• Topeka: up 2 percent

• Sedgwick County: up 4.5 percent

Retail sales numbers could take on some additional importance in the coming weeks. The planning commission next week is scheduled to vote on a proposed shopping center at the southeast corner of Iowa Street and the South Lawrence Trafficway. Discussion of whether Lawrence’s retail market can safely absorb more retailers is expected to be part of that meeting. The sales tax numbers are some of the best data we have on that subject.

I hope to get my abacus out in the coming days and crunch a few numbers in that regard.