mattbell: (Default)
mattbell ([personal profile] mattbell) wrote2009-07-06 01:02 pm
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The science of retail placement

If you do a google maps search for "trader joe's 94306" you will notice a string of five of them lined up more or less equidistant along the Peninsula as well as another string of three down in San Jose.

A lot of thought surely goes into the precise placement of stores, as the investment per store is huge and mistakes will lead to millions of dollars in lost sales.

Many factors likely go into it -- socioeconomic status and population density of surrounding neighborhoods, placement of competition, proximity to major roads, shopping patterns around the goods being sold etc.  These factors are of course different for different types of retailers.  It might be fun to see how different chains put up their constellations of stores in major cities.  

In retrospect, it's a bit unusual that the Trader Joes are so precisely spaced.  It means the population density across the peninsula is fiarly constant, the SES doesn't vary that much, and the development is narrow enough to concentrate the stores along a single line instead of a more spread-out structure. 

[identity profile] merovingian.livejournal.com 2009-07-06 08:20 pm (UTC)(link)
....or Trader Joe's placed their stores according to secret principles of Urban Geomancy.

[identity profile] nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com 2009-07-06 08:27 pm (UTC)(link)
That would explain why their employees seem so unusually happy while Safeway employees are glum.

(Well, that and their excellent corporate culture and good pay/benefits packages :-)

[identity profile] merovingian.livejournal.com 2009-07-06 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
And the tropical patterns on the shirts!

I gotta go grocery shopping soon.

[identity profile] serolynne.livejournal.com 2009-07-06 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
It's also interesting to look at the size of each store.. which in my experience, varies quite a bit.

[identity profile] plymouth.livejournal.com 2009-07-06 11:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm pleased to be moving within walking distance of one of the larger ones :) Wheee!

[identity profile] tigresa.livejournal.com 2009-07-06 10:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Are they all on El Camino? At least the one in Sunnyvale is... it would make sense to put them at regular intervals on that street, since it's all retail and there is a long string of "small towns" along that corridor.

[identity profile] nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com 2009-07-06 11:09 pm (UTC)(link)
They're all within 1000 ft or so of el camino.

[identity profile] il-capitano-z.livejournal.com 2009-07-07 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
An aside: brilliantly made youtube video about TJ (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdB7GDZY3Pk)