The Physics of a Good Store Location

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.

Comments

Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[Anonymous Coward]

That's two Roland junk science articles that have made Slashdot today. I guess since people have stopped clicking links for him, Roland has to up the submission rates to the editors.

ONCE AGAIN, he is linking to the same zdnet blog that he has the last 4 times. Are you editors all dumb? Can you not figure out it's a ad-trap? I guess since we can't filter him, we have to make posts like this to bitch. Did I mention this is more junk science to ad rape us with? K...

So yea offtopic me all you want Roland (with your many accounts here), but since (as usual) this is a submission for ad clicks, I just want to say thanks for wasting my eyeballs again. Let's hope people realize this is crap before they post and click for him. Not that his links have anything to do with real science...which makes this whole submission offtopic.

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[FhnuZoag]

While I can make no guesses as to the intent of the submitter, the article in question looks legit - it refers to a real future article in Physics Review E, which is a pretty well recognised peer reviewed journal dealing with Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter physics.

See http://scitation.aip.org/dbt/dbt.jsp?KEY=PLEEE8&Vo lume=74&Issue=3#MAJOR4

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed, and thank you for the link to real article, which was NOT linked in the summary. The above poster's issue was with the sites that WERE linked in the summary.

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[Anonymous Coward]

That's two Roland junk science articles that have made Slashdot today. I guess since people have stopped clicking links for him, Roland has to up the submission rates to the editors.

Not necessarily. He could start branching out. My suggestion:

Scientists determine Republican stockholders of SCO who use Windows with Star Trek TOS screensavers are 78% more likely to be infected with spyware than Democratic Mac users that prefer TNG backgrounds. Next up: Linux Libertarians with Dr. Who wallpaper."

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[Eternauta3k]

Damn! The thousands of slashsdotters who will read the article and give him ad money! Oh wait...

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[Anonymous Coward]

phys rev *E*? mod me down for being a troll, but thats the boondock/graveyard where crappy physics papers go to die. important stuff comes out in physical reveiw letters.

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[Korin43]

I think the point is that "predicting the perfect bakery location" isn't exactly the biggest thing ever, but it's still legitimate.

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[TubeSteak]

I'm pretty sure /. has an (official?) editorial policy on that kind of thing.

I refer to the practice of linking to a blog or some other site instead of linking directly to TFA itself.

Right? Anyone volunteer to go dig up the CmdrTaco comments from those Slashdot Navel-Gazing threads we had? I'm sure someone remembers it exactly, or has it bookmarked.

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[Anonymous Coward]

Ehn. The letter at the end of the name isn't a grade, but a categorisation. A is atomic/molecular, B is condensed matter, C is nuclear, D is particle/cosmology etc. Letters is for 'broad interest'.

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[bodan]

So what is E for?

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[Anonymous Coward]

Statistical, nonlinear and soft matter physics.

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[bodan]

Quite appropriate then, I'd say. People are soft matter, buying things is governed by nonlinear processes, and sociology is largely treated statistically ;)

Am I the only one who thinks economy and sociology are physics subjects?

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[tlhIngan]

Wouldn't a better solution be to click on his ads? If his ad clickthrough rate shoots up, he may get accused of click fraud. Click several times or run a script to do it over several days. Surely wget and a simple script set to refresh a page every minute, then get every ad on that page.

Re:Roland Piquepaille Junk Science #2

[gstoddart]

While I can make no guesses as to the intent of the submitter, the article in question looks legit - it refers to a real future article in Physics Review E, which is a pretty well recognised peer reviewed journal dealing with Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter physics.

And here I'd let my subscription lapse. :-P

In Roland's defense, I would never have heard of this, but it's cool nonetheless to hear about it. If he can find links to Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter physics, power to him. That doesn't show up on my google homepage. =)

Usually I have to read more about him posting than the actual topic. People: he posts interesting stories.

Cheers

Interesting

[guardiangod]

I know people (usually the business types) who can go to an empty store location, look around for 3 minutes and tell you whether the location is good or not.

Even on the same street, stores on one side may be "live" while stores on the other side may be "dead".

Re:Interesting

[Alsee]

Helpfully linkified:

I know people (usually the business types) who can go to an empty store location, look around for 3 minutes and tell you whether the location is good or not.

-

Re:Interesting

[rapidweather]

Let's see, using atomic physics to determine the best place to open a bakery...

Look, if it's a bakery, and makes donuts, cakes, fudge bars, (the kind with walnuts inside, and sugar on the bottom), then there is absolutely no need to use "physics" to determine where to put the store!

Put it anywhere there is a road! Make sure the sign outside says "Bakery".
It's going to be a huge success from the very first day!

Don't even need to sell coffee there. Had that already. Just provide friendly staff to stuff our bakery items in a nice paper bag, with paper napkins. Take our money, and be able to say, "Hey, you forgot your change!" as we bolt out the door, eager to devourer our goodies.

Then, as "icing on the cake" as it were, make it "two-for-one" after 11:00AM.

You get two giant cinnamon buns for a dollar!

They are anxious to get rid of them, so they can make more tomorrow!

-- Rapidweather

Re:Interesting

[RubberDogBone]

All you need to make a bakery a success is have the aroma of fresh bread wafting through the neighborhood.

If you really want to be like a bakery in France, you want to be on a side street with no good parking, have an unmarked door and perhaps no sign outside, and you want to be open only three or four hours a day. If customers can't find you, of if the bread is all sold out, that's their loss.

But honestly, most neighborhoods in France already have at least one bakery. They're about as common as convenience stores in the US. So why do they need to bring in nuclear physics to figure out where to open another one? Why not just ask a baker? They've been opening bakeries since humans figured out how to cook.

Re:Interesting

[mgblst]

One of the reasons I love Paris, and loathe the UK and USA (ok, loathe is a bit harsh). You can't compare the quality of stuff you get in the supermarket over here, to the Baked goods from France.

Re:Interesting

[jonnythan]

Why are you comparing supermarket stuff from the US to specialty store stuff in France? That's like comparing Wal-Mart furniture to fine hand-crafted furniture.

There are plenty of quality bakeries in the US. While they may not in general be as good as the ones in France, they are far superior to supermarkets.

Economics?

[TubeSteak]

This is the kind of thing Economists have been playing with for years.

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.

Re:Economics?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, but for some reason they keep omitting the doors to the shops because the theory says that people should be able to tunnel on through the walls.

tag: pigpile

[Janek Kozicki]

I saw once this tag used for this submitter. Let's use it from now on! (/me tags pigpile)

Re:tag: pigpile

[rbochan]

But what good are the tags? It's not like /. allows for filtering based on tags. The /. tags just seem like useless masturbation.

Re:tag: pigpile

[1tsm3]

Quoting: "... useless mastrubation"

That's an oxymoron you moron!!

Re:tag: pigpile

[1point618]

Correct (or rather, closer to correct) pronunciation would be "peek-pie".

And I honestly don't see what is so wrong with his articles. Sure, he adds a link to his own blog, but that's her perogative as a submitter, and often times the articles he submits are interesting, and not nearly bad science as that "Scottish Firm Developes Free Energy" was, or so many other articles (not by Roland) have been.

Not to say he's amazing or anything, I just don't get what everyone has against him...

Re:tag: pigpile

[TempeTerra]

Yeah, but putting in a tag makes me feel better... Umm, I mean it provides a certain necessary release.. I mean,.. oh crap, I give up.

Re:tag: pigpile

[1u3hr]

Personally, I use fuckroland. Yes, childish, but most tags seem to be.

feng shui is way better than this

[icegreentea]

feng shui at least pumps out crap that people can pretend to understand. oh, and it also tells you what colour to make the shop. as well as the layout of the shop. AND what to put right infront of the shop.

Finally, a practical use for physics.

[boyfaceddog]

Next in the pipeline - physicists work with news editors to produce useless but well-targeted articles.

Re:Finally, a practical use for physics.

[ColdWetDog]

How about using Quantum Dynamics to determine whether or not to use lurid shades of purple for background colors on web sites?

Come on folks. It's not like you had to pay for the paint. I haven't seen anything this bad short of MySpace...

stupid

[Anonymous Coward]

It is nothing but common sense with math.

Re:stupid

[Iron Condor]

It is nothing but common sense with math.

Yes, that's what physics is: A well-organized, well-documented common sense with math.

How To Block Roland Piquepaille

[Anonymous Coward]

For Firefox users, this Greasemonkey script will hide stories submitted by Roland Piquepaille:
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/5738

Let's get physical...

[__aaclcg7560]

... help business owners find the best places to locate their stores.

Sounds like another consultanting scheme to separate business owners from their money. I guess having a good business plan, a generous handout from the city and feng shui just doesn't cut it anymore.

roland, yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

another roland submission, do the /. editors pay him or something? Oh, he just links to his ad sites. I am so bored of Roland Pickyapelly.

Economic Geography

[NeuroBoy]

From what I can tell the concepts utilized are related to gravity models as applied from economic/business geography (which admittedly stole the idea from physicists). Interesting none-the-less, but hardly novel at this point (see publications in geographic literature by Grant Thrall and others for more info).

Roland

[Anonymous Coward]

Link whore.
Come on people! Do the link in your comments! Let's make Roland google's #1 hit for Link Whore.

Interesting - but not a general solution.

[Bender0x7D1]

This is great when you create a model based on a single town/city/location and apply it to that city/town/location, but that doesn't mean it is transferable.

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.

Re:Interesting - but not a general solution.

[Pink Tinkletini]

In urban planning and economics, this is called location theory. See, for instance, "The Geography of Entrepreneurship in the New York Metropolitan Area," published last year in the Economic Policy Review, which describes one such model as you describe. (Warning, PDF with 3.4 MB of cool maps.)

Re:Interesting - but not a general solution.

[Eternauta3k]

I find that here on Buenos Aires too. Although not next to each other, bussinesses of the same kind tend to group on the same streets. It's kinda nice.

Re:Interesting - but not a general solution.

[SrLobo]

Actually, that doesn't mean that method is not transferable, it only means that the full proccess must be repeated on each city (or region) for it to make any sense. Measuring all those factors you talk about, and their effect, is exactly what the first part of this system does. Common sense may tell you that the local is in this or that ideal place, and will tell you that local will be very expensive as well. When you have to choose between two or three cheaper places, all worse than that ideal one, this method may be able to help you.

About that "Since most american families own a car, how the distance and time affect things is different than in Europe"... most european families do own cars. Our lower number of cars per capita does not translate as more families not owning a car, it just means that our families don't usually own more than two cars (i did not find the data for all Europe, but it is about 1.7 for Spain.

Re:Interesting - but not a general solution.

[1u3hr]

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.

This is the usual thing in most Asian cities I've been in. A whole street of sports shoe shops, another street of wedding card printers, etc, etc. I imagine it reduces the risk of starting a new business. You're bound to get some walk in sales as basically everyone who passes by has come to the area specifically to look for the products you sell, and if you offer lower prices or better products initially at least you can quickly grab a share of the market.

Re:Interesting - but not a general solution.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not always as the rule of 5 to 7 from ecology applies very often to economics. It says that for any limited prey or forage (in this case customers) that there will be from five to seven predators or foragers (store types) of the same general type utilizing the resource. Think about fast food stores. I'm sure you can think of places near you that have at least five of that type store but rarely find places that crowd eight or nine similar stores into the same area. An exception is some food courts in shopping malls and just notice how often one or more stores is going under. Remember that economics is a sub-set of ecology dealing with the flow of energy (money) thru an ecosystem (human society).

Yeah according to Quantum Physics

[CrazyJim1]

We wouldn't need doors on the stores because we could just phase through the walls.

Re:Yeah according to Quantum Physics

[Alsee]

True, but the Quantum Tunneling time to enter the local coffee shop is a bit longer than my lunch hour.

-

Thank you SO MUCH

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been hoping for this feature from the Slashdot crew, but this will work just fine!

Re:Thank you SO MUCH

[brendandonhue]

No problem-- I wrote it after the first Roland submission today.

Re:Thank you SO MUCH

[celardore]

No problem-- I wrote it after the first Roland submission today.

You sir, are a god amongst slashdotters.

Re:Thank you SO MUCH

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks a lot for posting your filter script!

Haha, Roland

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of the comments in this thread are how to ignore, block, or berate you. Well done, you've really upset the slashdot community now. Why don't you make another submission about it?

Seriously, it's a Roland article...ignore it.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not going to RTFA even if it is the most brilliant article in the world...because it's submitted by Roland
This isn't a troll, although it is offtopic, but really...we should all start yelling to ignore these

Emergence

[Infonaut]

There's an intriguing discussion of geographic distribution of commerce in Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Stephen Johnson.

It's a great read, and it gave me all kinds of nonlinear insights into How The World Works that I hadn't really thought about before. It also definitely made me want to bust out Sim City again.

Re:Emergence

[hexi]

Also on the subject of Econophysics, I strongly recommend Philip Ball's book Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads To Another. It's one of the most interesting books I read last year.

Dear Roland,

[Anonymous Coward]

Give it a rest. Nobody wants you, or cares about you here. Go cry about it and rejoice in your ad revenue.

Physics and geography meet again, eh?

[vague disclaimer]

It seems nearly 30 years ago - in fact it *actually* 27 years ago - that my undergrad dissertation used gravity modelling to predict the impact of a new shooping centre.

Lakshmanen-Hansen: some names to conjure with.

This science really is bogus

[Dryanta]

Predicting the locations of bakeries is one thing, but what about call centers, NOCs, corn fields, and cnc shops? These are all pretty disparate examples where many variables preclude their location. For example, a call center needs access to telephone exchanges and a populace to draw against employee turnover. A NOC needs to be located where there are a lot of big pipes, preferably a tall building. A corn field needs to be in a place where there is enough fertile land that will support a large crop. A cnc shop needs to be in an industrial area with a lot of space and big doors. Not even to mention economic trends that affect this business, suggesting that even the smartest engineers and mathemeticians can correctly using physics explain all of these (mostly) subjective variables is purely absurd. A bakery or jewelery store, maybe even a grocery store or gas station.... sure, I'll buy that. But the application of this seems so limited that especially considering the articles vagaries and the person who wrote it, I call shenanegans!

Re:This science really is bogus

[The_Wilschon]

A NOC needs to be located where there are a lot of big pipes, preferably a tall building.

I usually prefer to site a NOC near a series of tubes.

Roland Piquepaille

[Anonymous Coward]

What a loser.

Roland Piquepaille has a Wikipedia page.

[celardore]

I searched for Roland_Piquepaille on Wikipedia, and guess what - it redirected to slashdot. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Piquepaille

I'm gonna go ahead and nominate that for speedy deletion, as Wikipedia says - be bold

Maybe a new idea, but is it better?

[janneH]

This has to be a problem similar to that of deciding where in a store to put products to optimize sales, and that must be a pretty sophisticated science by now. Do you put the sesame oil next to the other oils or the asian foods? Laundry soups near the entrance or in the back? So the question becomes - is this approach to the problem better than others that are out there? Hopefully they have already tested it against other models and shown that it does well - before subjecting some unwitting small business owner to their fancy new software.

Newsflash!

[oohshiny]

Physicists rediscovers century-old, widely used methods of spatial statistics! We'll keep you informed about breaking news. We don't expect it to happen, but if this person were actually to open a textbook outside his field, we'll be the first to report it!

The topic is already ruined.....

[Anonymous Coward]

After so much Roland Dickhead bashing, is anyone really going to pay attention to this article?

Teehee...

[celardore]

This page has been deleted, and protected to prevent re-creation.

A small triumph, but I want to relish in it. That was me!

But we already know how to do that...

[jonadab]

> help business owners find the best places to locate their stores

Um, we already know how to find the optimal location for a store. You look for where there's a McDonald's, and you locate the store right next to it. Couldn't be simpler. _How_ McD's always manages to find exactly the perfect spot, I'm not sure, but I've yet to see one suboptimally located, so plopping down next to them should be a pretty reliable way to find a really good spot.

Quack Quack!

[triso]

"...Jensen says that more research is needed to know if this method would work in other cities [than Lyon]."

First he needs more research to know if this method would work in Lyon.

good science, revealing article

[m0llusk]

The article makes only a few points, all of them long held as valid. Summarized very briefly, sampling is used to correct for spacial anomalies, categories are revealed with Potts algorithm, and potential is revealed with field theory. What is interesting is that the writer of the article appears unaware of the large body of previous work similar to this. Also interesting is the Slashdot obsession with quick judgement over a thorough read. It seems that both the writer and the Slashdot audience reveal our culture of modernity to be limited not as much by the capacities of our Engineers and Scientists but rather by those of our Librarians and Professors.

Who let the dogs in?

[Animats]

Not Roland the Plogger again? He just posted a crap story yesterday. This has to stop.

What a minute? Feng Shui is real?

[NotQuiteReal]

And I thought Penn and Teller did an excellent Bullshit episode debunking Feng Shui.

Wait, I know - maybe it works on the sub-atomic level, yeah, that's it, all kinds of non-intuitive stuff happens there...

(tagging beta)

[ScottCooperDotNet]

Taco wanted to having something in beta so he'd get some Google lovin'.

Stop this Roland crap, slashdot.

[ruprechtjones]

Please, anyone in charge of Slashdot content, please drop this drivel from Roland Piquepaille. You are only hurting your own credibility by helping this talentless troll. His regurgitation may work for, say, the Myspace crowd, but this is slashdot and I expect more from you. I will click on ads from your sponsors that pertain to me, but I will not help an empty soul like Roland. Up your standards, or up yours. sincerely, Ruprecht Jones