All of us in the chain store industry would love to believe that we are making better real estate decisions today than before we had digitial maps, demographic data, and predictive models. There is no question that some companies have reduced capital losses from store closings and increased profitability of their stores with these tools. Continue reading
Most chain store modeling experts will tell you that a “good” sales forecasting model will estimate sales +/- 20% in 80-90% of the cases.
Most chain store real estate dealmakers believe that they need a model with no more than +/- 15% error 85% of the time.
Most people don’t agree on how this error is measured or what the role of human judgment should be in determining the “official” sales estimate used in calculating the projected return on investment. Continue reading
It’s been 17 years since I started the company that became geoVue. That’s a lot of 70 hour weeks with not enough vacation.
It’s been 17 weeks since geoVue was sold to a new owner. That’s a lot of time to think about the last 17 years and gain some perspective on the quest for good practices in real estate planning and site selection.
I’ve decided to spend the foreseeable future using what I’ve learned to help guide chain store operators in making better real estate investment decisions. The focus of this work will be “connecting art and science,” which sums up the greatest need that I have seen among retailers, restaurants, and service companies in building a profitable network of stores. There are many good people and many good technologies being used by companies today. However, they often fail to deliver their potential because they are not integrated properly. Continue reading
Chain Store Advisors 