Location Analytics and Decision Support: Reflections on Recent Advancements

Information Technology Management

Answer 1
Starbucks prioritizes the selection of appropriate location for their stores. They use the
Geographic Information System (GIS) so that they can open their stores at a proper site and place
the right product in the right place. The company plans their business according to their location.
Starbucks has faced a lot of problems in the past due to their focus on growth acceleration and
negligence of location analytics (Pick, Turetken, Deokar & Sarkar, 2017). The stores had been
just for the sake of creating brand awareness across United States. There was no profit earning
from these store openings. Starbucks has been using GIS since 1990s but they did not have
required expertise to analyse the data collected. Thus there were many flaws in location of stores
during 2007-2008.
Answer 2
The location analytics has helped the managers and decision makers of Starbucks to open their
stores at the best locations. They have opened many new stores during 2011-2012, keeping the
location analytics in mind, which have given them good returns in terms of revenue and sales
(Skibiski, et.al, 2015). Starbucks is using the Atlas which is a store development and market
planning application. This has facilitated their study regarding location and demographics.
The decision makers rely on the real estate staff of Starbucks for the decision regarding opening
a Starbucks store at a particular location. The decision of store location is taken based upon the
data of the Atlas that gives the staff an opportunity to compare various scenarios and finally take
a decision.
The Atlas helps in taking the decision of setting up the Clover Brewing high end system by
providing the required data to Starbucks so that they can analyse the situation. This system