STORES Magazine - May 2008 - (Page 88)

NUTS AND BOLTS / SITE SELECTION Barking Up the Right Tree Site-selection tools aiding Pet Supermarket’s expansion BY D. GAIL FLEENOR E valuating potential store sites can be a time-consuming process. For companies on a fast-growth track in multiple markets, however, expediting that process without sacrificing accuracy is critical. Pet Supermarket, a 100-plus store chain, is opening 20 locations per year, and recently began using a solution from geoVue that can cut site evaluation time from days to minutes. Sunrise, Fla.-based Pet Supermarket’s sites are concentrated in its home state, the Atlanta area and North Carolina, but it is currently entering new markets with an aggressive new-store schedule. The family-owned company carries more than 8,000 pet products, supplies and medicines in stores ranging in size from 4,500 to 11,000 sq. ft. The chain’s relationship with Woburn, Mass.-based geoVue began more than four years ago and has evolved over time, according to Diane Holtz, president and COO of Pet Supermarket. “We started by using their mapping and demographic data,” she says. “Then last year we made a big leap forward by using iPREDICT,” a program that evaluates each neighborhood within a market to determine the most likely customers, the frequency of their visits and how much they will spend. To generate that information, Pet Supermarket supplied its customer address database (minus names) to geoVue. Using geoVue’s software, Pet Supermarket learned who its customers really are. “We have customers in their 20s for whom a pet is a substitute [for a] child, young families purchasing ‘starter pets’ and empty nesters, which is the group “Almost immediately, we can see what will happen in a market, how much a new store will do in volume and how a new store will affect our other units.” – Diane Holtz, Pet Supermarket with the highest growth volume,” Holtz says. “Sixty percent of all Americans own pets, so the potential for purchasing pet supplies doesn’t depend upon high income. All consumers with pets will spend.” Based on Pet Supermarket’s customer address database and demographic data, geoVue generated a list of the top 100 markets with the greatest potential for strong pet supply sales volumes. “We were already in some of the cities listed,” Holtz says, but the results also identified cities where a 88 WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - May 2008

Stores - May 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Contrasting C-Level Compensation Across Segments What Shoppers Think 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Cover Story: Concepts That Clicked Concept2Watch Kiosks Artificial Intelligence Tech Support Online LPinformation Data Synchronization Human Resources Site Selection POS Selection Communications Biometrics Networking Systems Credit Loeb Retail Letter Arts Update Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - May 2008

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