The Physics of a Good Store Location 72
Roland Piquepaille writes, "In 'Atomic Physics Predicts Successful Store Location,' LiveScience reports that a French physicist has applied methods used to study atomic interactions for another task: to 'help business owners find the best places to locate their stores.' Pablo Jensen has used his method for the city of Lyon and is now developing software with the local Chamber of Commerce to help future business owners. Read more for additional references and maps of the city of Lyon showing for example the best locations to open a bakery, according to atomic physics." Jensen says that more research is needed to know if this method would work in other cities.
Interesting (Score:5, Insightful)
Even on the same street, stores on one side may be "live" while stores on the other side may be "dead".
Economics? (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't remember who, but some guy got some press for an article he wrote discussing how a lot more progress would be made if we threw researchers from disparate fields together to work on a problem.
By bringing their differing talents/viewpoints/knowledge to a problem, you end up with new and 'better' solutions.
tag: pigpile (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:tag: pigpile (Score:3, Insightful)
Interesting - but not a general solution. (Score:4, Insightful)
For example, there are many small town or villages in wine regions in the midwest U.S. where there are multiple wineries/shops/bakeries that are right next door to each other and do quite well. According to this model, many of those bakeries should fail. In fact, it is the shops farther away from the "main street" that have the fewest customers. The same in historical/heritage communities. In the Amana Colonies in Iowa - same thing - multiple bakeries beside each other with similar merchandise but all full of customers.
What is missing in this model is how different cultures view the shopping experience. In the U.S., we seem to prefer going to a single area and having a large number of similar shops. If we want to buy a car, we prefer to hit an area where there are numerous dealers so we can find a good deal. We would rather drive past a local bakery to hit WalMart so we can save a few dollars. Since most american families own a car, how the distance and time affect things is different than in Europe. We don't shop locally by default, which is why WalMart can kill small businesses for miles around.
Now, I'm not saying that this model is bad, but the locality, culture an demographics needs to be taken into account, so this isn't a generic model that can be applied everywhere, but a technique that other localities can use to create their own model.
It would also be interesting to see how large changes such as extended construction on a major road, or the construction of a new mall/housing complex/office building would affect the model.
This science really is bogus (Score:2, Insightful)
good science, revealing article (Score:2, Insightful)