Date:         Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:14:13 -0700
Reply-To:     backup115@GMAIL.COM
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         backup115@GMAIL.COM
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Subject:      Retail Trade Area (Catchment) Calculation Method?
Comments: To: sas-l@uga.edu
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Greetings,

I work for a small market research firm. We're doing a bit of R&D and
trying to come up with a trade area optimization analysis. A typical
scenario is that we're given customer transaction data with addresses.
We can append  X,Y data and calculate distance to store. We then make
some customer density calculations (census block area / customer
count). This is somewhat our 'poor man' alternative for clients
unwilling to pay for a full blown GIS analysis.

We've written a program to divide the trade area around the store into
octants and then we optimize each octant individually based on
distance from store and customer density.

The shortcoming of our approach is that we're stuck using static
octants as the sectors for optimization. Ideally we'd be able to
optimize in 360 degrees around the store taking into account customer
density and distance. Are there any commonly used trade area
calculation techniques commonly used?

If there is anyone else interested in developing a similar analysis I
eager to do a cooperative R&D project.

Open to Suggestions,
ronny