Assignment 5: Site Location

Bass Pro Shops Retail Site Selection

Presented to:

Bass Pro Shops Marketing Team

Prepared by:

Zach Miller

Geospatial Analyst - University of Wisconsin Eau Claire

Project Overview

Bass Pro Shops is an outdoor gear and apparel retailer with more than one hundred locations around the nation. Catering to anglers and sportsman alike, Bass Pro Shops emphasizes maximizing the customer experience at their stores or online, proving the best quality tools and equipment for the outdoors, and conserving the land and game that make it all possible. Eau Claire, Menominie, Chippewa Falls, Lake Hallie, Altoona, and many other nearby cities/towns are major fishing hubs and outdoor communities that could really use a one-stop bait and gear shop. With Gander Mountain closing and SCHEELS Sporting Goods being the only competitive outdoor gear provider in the Chippewa valley, Bass Pro Shops and the greater Eau Claire area would be missing out on a huge opportunity by not implementing a store in Eau Claire, WI. 

For this assignment, I will preform analyses on potential site locations for a new Bass Pro Shops store. These analyses will look at how income, population, drive time access, other retailers, and recreation habits all factor in to where a good site location for a new Bass Pro Shops would work well.

Methods

The first step in site selection is market analysis. It was important to understand the threshold of Bass Pro Shops (BPS) store implementation. In figure 1, the current BPS in the US located in cities of ~67,684 people, give or take 10,000, are shown. 

Figure 1

Knowing that there are ten successful BPS in "smaller" cities much like Eau Claire, reinforces the feasibility of implementing a BPS in the Eau Claire area. The next step was to look at other retailers for bait, tackle, and outdoor gear.

Figure 2: Market Structure Map.

In figure 2, all bait, tackle, and outdoor gear stores, big and small, within the study area are shown. Gander Mountain, which is located due southeast of the furthest southeastern store shown on the map, was not included due to its expected demise. However, eight stores over multiple cities is relatively low considering how prevalent fishing and outdoor recreation are in the study area - there is most certainly room for development in this market.

From there, three sites were selected based on the pre-existing stores located in figure 2 as well as easy access from major highways. The "rank sites" tool from business analyst was used in figure 3 to rank the three chosen sites based on specified attributes within a ten mile radius. The attributes chosen consisted of:

- Number of potential customers that went fishing in the last 12 months.
- Number of potential customers that spent over $250 on sports and/or recreation equipment in the last 12 months.
- 2016 total population.
- 2016 average household income between $50,000 and $200,000.

Figure 3: Potential Sites

These characteristics were helpful in determining which site was best suited for the ideal customers that would be shopping at a BPS. In figure 3, potential store one was deemed the most suitable store for the criteria specified above.

Next, trade areas were calculated in figure 4 to see drive times to each of the stores. Each of the rings represents a different threshold for drive times. The yellow rings represent drive times of ten minutes or less to each individual store, the red rings represent drive times of fifteen minutes or less, and the blue rings represent drive times of twenty minutes or less. In figure 4, some of the trade area for the Eau Claire site was covered up by the Lake Hallie store trade area, and because they are relatively close they mostly share the same trade area anyway. However, the red thin line near the southern portion of the map is pertaining to a drive time threshold for the Eau Claire site.

Figure 4: Drive times and trade areas.

Lastly, a gravity model (or point of indifference) was calculated to determine the locations of where customers will choose which store to go to.

Figure 5: Gravity model / Point of indifference.

In this formula:
d = distance along major highway between two cities.
Pa = population of city a
Pb = population of city b

Since the three sites chosen were in Menomonie, Eau Claire, and Lake Hallie, I chose Eau Claire to Menomonie for one distance, Chippewa Falls to Lake Hallie for another, and Chippewa Falls to Eau Claire for a third. The breaking point for the first distance (Eau Claire [a] to Menomonie [b]) was 19.5 miles. The breaking point for the second distance (Chippewa Falls [a] to Lake Hallie [b]) was 2 miles. The breaking point for the third distance (Chippewa Falls [a] to Eau Claire [b]) was 3.6 miles.

Conclusion

Implementing a Bass Pro Shops store near the River Prairie exit on US-53 highway would be a great location for this store to do well. Based on many factors analyzed in this assignment, this location would serve the needs of outdoorsmen and anglers from all around the greater Eau Claire area. Since the store's location would be technically in Altoona, a neighboring city of Eau Claire, the tax payers of Altoona would also benefit from this deal and stimulate their economy all while benefiting a great company that upholds standards of quality products and services, customer satisfaction, and sustainable practices.