Location data is critical to retail success and essential to expansion planning. Market research firm AggData offers a revealing tool that TIME Labs used to rank the richest retail locations in the U.S.
You can experiment with it free online.
The interactive form compiles the U.S. median income of brands based on updated 2013 Census data. TIME ranked 2,996 chains by comparing the median income of the counties where stores are located. TIME used this information to rank the richest department stores, grocery stores, and restaurants by location. You can use it to perform some useful local reconnaissance on tea, coffee and cafe chains.
I started with 390-store Teavana and DAVIDsTEA. The table only ranks U.S. locations which include 311 Teavana stores and 24 DAVIDsTEA locations along with 30 Argo Tea locations. In 2013 the median household (inflation adjusted) income for the entire country was $51,939 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
DAVIDsTEA has located its shops in very high income counties (Chicago, Boston, New York, San Francisco) with a mean income of $73,226. These stores are located in counties ranking in the top 30% of U.S. incomes. Teavana is more broadly dispersed with mall stores in 46 states. Teavana Tea Bars are located in places like Manhattan and Beverly Hills. The median county income for Teavana locations is $62,304. Teavana locations are situated within counties with households in the top 41% of U.S. incomes. Argo follows with stores in five states and a median county income of $56,263. These locations rank within the top 44% of U.S. household incomes.
By comparison Starbucks has 12,231 locations in all 50 states (and two territories) with a median $52,739. The company also operates 27 Seattle’s Best Cafes in 16 states where the county median is $56,261. This number does not include the many thousands of non-branded locations where Seattle’s Best is sold.
To investigate competitors within your own market click this image and scroll to the bottom of the TIME page. Then use the search box to compare chains including Dunn Bros. Coffee, Coffee Beanery, Dutch Bros. Coffee, Tim Hortons, Gloria Jean’s Coffees, Tully’s Coffee, Panera Bread, Au Bon Pain etc. Peet’s Coffee & Tea was not listed.
Methodology
Household median income, from the 2013 American Community Survey, is averaged across all counties for every retail location available from AggData to find the “median shopper income.” Estimates for shopper’s income would likely show greater disparity if calculated by geographies smaller than counties, which include a broader spectrum of household incomes. Only brands with stores in 20 or more U.S. states are considered national chains and used in the lists above. Though all brands are available in the search feature regardless of the number of states they operate in.
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