Data, not sentiment, drives retail site location decisions

See "Trader Joe's fan undeterred by company response to letter campaign,"from the Albany Business Journal. From the article:

The leader of a grass roots campaign to convince Trader Joe's to open a store in Albany, N.Y., isn't deterred by a company official who wrote him saying there are no plans to do so.

Bruce Roter, a music professor at the College of St. Rose and big fan of the offbeat grocery store chain, said he and others are mailing postcards depicting scenes of the Albany region to Audrey Dumper, vice president of marketing at Trader Joe's regional headquarters in Needham, Mass.

Roter said Dumper sent him an "extremely polite" e-mail letting him know the company isn't looking at Albany as a location for a new store. Trader Joe's opens 10 to 15 new stores annually, Dumper told Roter.

"We are all sending her postcards of the Capital Region just to show what a beautiful place it is to live in and writing in our cards we hope that next year we can be part of the lucky 15," Roter said Monday. Roter said he's sending cards depicting the Empire State Plaza in Albany and an aerial photo of the city. He drew in arrows showing where he thinks a Trader Joe's would fit in well.

It's not about fitting in. It's about making money. See the previous blog entry, "Why the future of urban retail isn't chains." My focus in that piece was a little different, but the cited article from Business Week demonstrates the uber-data focus of retail chains when making store siting decisions.

I've never been a fan of these kinds of "marketing" campaigns because they don't focus on the information demands of the target. They want to know the demographics, and if they match the company's preferred store profile. And they want to know what kinds of incentives will be provided. Trader Joes doesn't want to see pretty pictures of Albany, they want to know how many millions the City and County would proffer to them to locate there. Etc.