Let's assume you are a grocery retailer, as an example.
- Select the Screen Markets to Find Retail Areas button on the home page.
- Next select the market of interest.
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When the market appears, it is divided into nine sections with a large grid overlay. You can select one of the grid cells to quickly zoom to that area of the market or you can analyze the entire market at once by select the "use entire market" option in the top, right-hand portion of the map.
- For faster processing select one of the nine market areas.
- When the map appears select the "Have High Retail Sales" button at the top and a list of all retail categories will pop up.
- Now select the retail sales category you want to use for screening.
- In our case we are interested in grocery stores so select "Food and Beverage Stores" as the category of interest.
- Remember to screen using RETAIL CATEGORIES if you want to find the retail areas with the highest current sales activity for a specific type of retailer. A high retail category sales rating for any grid cell or retail area means that sales for that category in the surrounding trade area is much larger than average.
- The market map that appears will help you quickly evaluate the retail grid zones that have the highest current sales (coming from the surrounding trade area) for that retail category. Red and purple zones show areas with the highest sales volumes while light yellow shows the lowest volumes.
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Depending on what you are planning, either high or low volume areas may be of interest.
- High volume areas show that there is currently a high level of grocery sales in the area. This can mean that: a) People who live and work in the area are spending more than average for groceries; or, b) There is considerable grocery competition (many stores) in the area producing the higher than average sales volumes.
- Low volume areas have the opposite meaning but, in general, are areas with little competition.
- If some of the locations you are considering fit either a "high sales" retail zone or "low sales" zone --- depending on your requirements --- that is a good reason to take the next step and evaluate these locations in more detail.
To do a more detailed evaluation of any grid cell or cells of interest simply click on "select grid cells to explore any area in detail." When you finished selecting cells, click on "finished with grid cell selection" and the options to generate reports will appear. Select the reports of interest.