The Location Types of US Retailers

This manuscript presents the results of an inductive analysis of the types of locations chosen by US retailers. Using a large cross-sectional database, including fifty US retail chains and over 70,000 store locations, a classification of retail location types is presented using cluster analysis on situational and trade area data. These data are then applied to create a location profile for each retailer. Based on the results of the first cluster analysis, a second cluster analysis then groups together the chains with the most similar location profiles. A total of twelve distinct location types were identified in the first cluster analysis. Eight groupings of retailers with similar location profiles were identified in the second cluster analysis. Retailers within the same retail business chose similar types of locations and thus were placed in the same clusters. Retailers generally restrict their deployment to one of three overall strategies including metropolitan, large retail areas, or market size variety with specialty retailers favoring large retail areas of urban markets.