Online Forum Asks if GIS Can Bring Choice Back into a “One Size Fits All” Retail Landscape

Locating Business Intelligently Is Topic of Spatial Roundtable

Simon Thompson, director of global business solutions, Esri, asks retailers to raise the bar and start reflecting local flavors and themes in the stores they open. “On my last drive across Kansas, it wasn’t the wheat fields or the flatness that amazed me but the repetitive retail landscape,” Thompson explains. “It seemed that every small town was a clone of the one I had just left—the same restaurant chains, grocers, drugstores, and general merchants.”

Thompson asks those with an opinion to share their insight on the current “one size fits all” retail landscape via Spatial Roundtable, a forum sponsored by Esri to discuss important topics. Can retailers use location intelligence through geographic information system (GIS) technology and data to discover the differences between each town and city? Can we use this information to give these communities what they need to satisfy customer demand, create vibrant communities, and thrive? Or do we give in to, as Thompson describes it, “the Wicked Witch of the Great Recession”?

Spatial Roundtable is designed for industry thought leaders to share their points of view about concerns, trends, challenges, and technologies. Participants in the online Spatial Roundtable discussion include the main contributor, who initiates the discussion, and invited topic-expert guests. Site visitors may also add comments. Topics remain open for discussion for 6 weeks. Archived topics are accessible for 24 months.

Visit www.spatialroundtable.com.

[Source: Esri press release]