Daniel Morris has over ten years experience running demographic reports for the real estate industry. These reports are used for site selection by retailers and for marketing purposes by landlords and investors. We caught up to Dan shortly after he opened demoreports, his own company that specializes in producing accurate, informative demographics reports for locations throughout the United States. Here's what he had to say;
My work is mainly for regional retailers, national chain retailers, and mom and pop stores as well. When someone with two or three existing locations is looking for the right location to open a new shop, I can give them the population and income numbers that will help them make the best decision on where to locate their new store based on their criteria. Those opening new units already have a profile of who their most profitable customers are and they know the income level and population numbers that work for them. They just need to know where to locate their store so they'll be close enough to draw their target customer's business. A lot of companies go by zip code since most of their marketing and mailings are handled that way and the need to know how many people are in a given zip code. demoreports can give them the numbers they're looking for by any given radii, trade area, or zip code.
Most retailers choose the radii report. They want a one, three, and five mile ring to see how many people live in that area and they know pretty much how much draw their store will have as well. For example, video stores know that most people aren't really going to drive more than three miles rent a video so the video stores will typically do a one, two, and three mile report and that gives them a good idea of how many people they're going to draw to that store.
demoreports offers two types of reports. The first is a summary report and it gives your basic demographic information as far as the total population, number of households, and the incomes in your given area. The expanded six page report breaks down the population by age, how many vehicles the residents own, how many renters versus homeowners, males versus females, and many more precise categories. Included in the reports are daytime demographics which are very important for restaurants who have a lunch business. These restaurants need to know how many people are in a given area at lunchtime so they can factor that into their projected performance before they open a store. Daytime demographics will show both the number of businesses and number of employees within the selected area. These reports also include growth reports and either a radius map or a trade area map of the areas being charted.
demoreports can update your older reports and we can find the location by co-ordinates, intersection, by center of the cities, or by address. When most retailers are trying to decide upon a location, they will run reports on all of their prospective sites and compare the demographics to determine which site will work the best for them. Usually, areas with more people and more money are where the retailers will go. The national chains leave nothing to guesswork, they base their decisions strictly by the numbers. They know that people tend to shop up. This means that people with lower incomes will go to a nicer neighborhood so they can shop in a more upscale environment. Those people living in upscale neighborhoods, however, will usually not shop in a lower scale neighborhood. To give the merchants the precise data they require, demoreports can generate demographic reports that even go down to the block level which is a much smaller area than the entire census tract data. When the radius ring gets drawn based on block level data, it's much more accurate than rings drawn on the entire census tract since even if you move the data point two blocks away, the numbers will vary.
I have done reports for Toys R Us, Bed Bath & Beyond, Circuit City, DSW, Blockbuster Video, Tops Groceries, Lonestar Steakhouse, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and Quizno's Classic Subs. The Chambers of Commerce use these demographic reports to help them attract businesses and families to their area. The reports are always generated using the very latest data and the software and the projected census data is updated yearly. By special request, I can make competition maps for the major metro areas in Ohio that are plotted on a full color map. For real estate companies, demoreports can produce the written, professional reports that will help their clients reach a favorable purchasing decision. All you have to do is to send me your criteria and we can have your report back to you either by fax or by email within ten to fifteen minutes. We can do it fast!
When accurate demographic information will better enable you to make an informed decision that will impact your future profitability, call Dan Morris at demoreports and don't forget to tell him Avon Lake Business & Living sent you!
