{"id":772976,"date":"2026-05-05T06:13:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=wherenext&#038;p=772976"},"modified":"2026-05-05T06:18:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:18:23","slug":"nexttech-to-close-or-not-to-close-this-store-your-gis-analyst-has-ideas","status":"publish","type":"wherenext","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/nexttech-to-close-or-not-to-close-this-store-your-gis-analyst-has-ideas","title":{"rendered":"NextTech: To Close or Not to Close This Store? Your GIS Analyst Has Ideas"},"author":501,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[11272,471991,1161,238001],"department":[476812],"wherenext-category":[],"industry":[],"class_list":["post-772976","wherenext","type-wherenext","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-demographics","tag-market-analysis","tag-retail","tag-site-selection","department-business-growth"],"acf":{"short_description":"Do multiple store locations in close proximity help or hinder business growth? The answer varies by brand and often stems from location analysis.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"As coffee chain Starbucks climbed to US market dominance during the 2000s, its stores became so ubiquitous that, at one point, consumers could famously find two locations <a href=\"https:\/\/houston.culturemap.com\/news\/restaurants-bars\/05-08-20-starbucks-location-closed-shuttered-2029-west-gray-shepherd-river-oaks-shopping-center-lewis-black\/\">at one intersection<\/a> in Houston."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Left","content":"<strong>Snapshot<\/strong>: It\u2019s not faulty site selection\u2014some companies place stores near one another because location analysis encourages the strategy. A look inside the science of retail planning","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Dollar General, the country\u2019s largest discount store chain with over 20,000 locations, is courting similar levels of penetration: It has 10 storefronts in a seven-mile stretch east of Tulsa.\r\n\r\nBrands with high store density must weigh site-selection risks, such as cannibalizing sales, against rewards like higher visibility and lower logistics costs.\r\n\r\nTo find the optimal balance between customer convenience and an overcrowded retail network, companies increasingly use the sophisticated analysis of geographic information system (GIS) software.\r\n<h3><strong>Site Selection Challenge: Are These Stores Complementary\u2014or Competing?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nIn the video below, a hypothetical luxury retailer uses <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/what-is-gis\/overview\">GIS to analyze<\/a> the trade areas of two nearby stores in upscale Los Angeles malls."},{"acf_fc_layout":"kaltura","video_id":"1_r5hbuy6y","time":false,"start":0,"stop":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Banks, fitness chains, urgent care providers, accounting firms, and other businesses use these same techniques to analyze whether locations are complementary or competing.\r\n\r\nA map of a 45-minute drive time around one store in Costa Mesa, California\u2019s South Coast Plaza provides a baseline of the store\u2019s potential reach. But at 2.2 million households, that area is too broad to provide much intelligence about target shoppers for the brand.\r\n\r\nWhat company executives really want to know is where anonymous groups of target customers are within that large mosaic of neighborhoods. Leveraging the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/psychographics-inside-story\">demographic and psychographic insights<\/a> of GIS makes this possible.\r\n\r\nOn a map, a retail analyst can highlight all the places where disposable income exceeds $100,000 and net worth is greater than $1 million\u2014the true trade area of interest for the luxury retailer.\r\n\r\nTo compare this area with that of a second store\u201412 miles away in the Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach\u2014the analyst adds the second location to the map and displays target customer groups living within 45 minutes of each store.\r\n\r\nA side-by-side comparison reveals that the trade areas are nearly twins in terms of demographics, with similar median ages, income levels, and home values.\r\n\r\nAn executive seeing similar consumer profiles for two stores might speculate: If the South Coast Plaza store closed, would the Fashion Island location attract the customers that formerly shopped in Costa Mesa?"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"<strong>Related Read:<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\/\/ Only available in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/available-in-select-locations\">select locations<\/a>?","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The best answer comes not from guesswork but from the location intelligence produced by mapping and analytics. The analyst uses GIS tools to identify customer areas unique to the South Coast Plaza location. Then, by comparing the demographics of that cohort with the broader group, the company can see if a distinct customer profile emerges around Costa Mesa.\r\n\r\nIndeed, the analytics reveal important nuances: The blocks of customers unique to South Coast Plaza, while still wealthy and highly educated, are more diverse and more likely to work from home or own their own business. They also spend a smaller percentage of their income on housing costs, offering clues to how they might spend their disposable income.\r\n<h3><strong>Replacing Market Generalities with Precise Location Insights<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe close-or-keep decision is ultimately a capital-allocation decision\u2014and without precise location intelligence, executives make it on instinct about neighborhoods they\u2019ve never analyzed.\r\n\r\nThe company might decide that the audience unique to South Coast Plaza isn\u2019t large enough to support that location in addition to the one at Fashion Island, arguing for closure. Alternately, the team might add competing brands to the map and conclude that the combined force of the two stores has largely warded off other brands, supporting a decision to keep both stores open.\r\n\r\nBy moving from generalities to specifics\u2014from broad-brush markets to a pinpoint customer understanding\u2014GIS technology equips brands with better knowledge about who they\u2019re serving and where. Companies that build this capability change how leadership makes decisions: by replacing intuition with analytically grounded answers to high-stakes investment decisions."}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Site Selection: A Demo Demystifies Retail Planning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Site selection still relies on human experience, but this software demo shows just how much technology adds to the analysis.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/publications\/wherenext\/nexttech-to-close-or-not-to-close-this-store-your-gis-analyst-has-ideas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NextTech: To Close or Not to Close This Store? 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