Concentric-Circle Location Science

“At Perrette, Bouchard’s supervisors would rent a space and then give him the mandate of putting in a store within a few weeks, without asking his opinion on the location chosen. He had definitely faced challenges. Often he even saw them coming beforehand, but no one would listen to his warnings. The years of trial and error had nonetheless paid off. They allowed him to develop the skill that he would later put to use: the ability to identify the best location for a convenience store, which became part of his new role at Provi-Soir. It was a responsibility that he took very seriously. To successfully carry out his task, he developed a mathematical model that he applied systematically to each new project. His basic criteria started with the number of vehicles driving to the site each day. Then he examined the number of residents who lived around the location, in expanding concentric circles to which he assigned a decreasing value according to distance. He also assessed the demographic makeup of the population, the average age, the number of children and the ethnic makup, knowing from experience that some groups are less likely to shop at convenience stores. After having been at the heart of Provi-Soir’s rapid growth, this formula, honed over time, would be one of the key elements to the success of Couche-Tard.”

“The ingredients: strategic positioning of products, an aggressive pricing policy, fast service at the cash registers and cost control. “In each case, our operating methods allowed us to increase sales by 15 to 20 percent in the first year. Every time”