Which retail store near me (e.g. Best Buy) is the biggest?

August 23, 2011 11:13 AM

There are 4 Whole Foods / Best Buy / Retail X stores near me. How can I find out which one is the biggest?

Any tips, tricks, google maps settings, websites, etc. that will tell me / compare the square footage of the stores near me? Thanks.

posted by blahtsk to shopping (8 answers total)

Do you just want to know the size of the building footprint in square feet, or do you want to know salesfloor square feet (which might be affected by some of them having several floors, and will be affected by how big "the back" is)?
posted by brainmouse at 11:16 AM on August 23, 2011

Sales floor sq. ft. would be better, but I'll take what I can get. Essentially I want to be able to search for a retail store and not only see them by proximity but also by physical size. Thanks!!
posted by blahtsk at 11:21 AM on August 23, 2011

Honestly, just calling Store (X) and ask which one is biggest is probably the fastest way to do this.
posted by rachelpapers at 11:47 AM on August 23, 2011 [4 favorites]

rachelpapers has it. Any decent manager knows the square footage of their store.
posted by coolguymichael at 11:51 AM on August 23, 2011

Normally the assessor's office would have this information, but I looked up the site for the city listed in your profile and did a search for a random Best Buy. I did not get the square footage, but did get the assessed value ($ 18,885,385) (FYI this is not the same as market value or sale price).

This is really a job for GIS.
posted by desjardins at 12:33 PM on August 23, 2011

Just go there and have a look.
posted by tiamat at 12:39 PM on August 23, 2011

If you are a stickler for percision, the answer is no, unless you ask them directly and they provide you the information.

With that said, here are some methods that you could use to calculate a rough estimate of the size.

Option 1: With that said, you could try using this distance tool to generate the edges of the buildings (assuming you know the addresses), and then do some hand calculations - assuming each store is free standing.

Option 2: The other way that companies do that is to purchase a dataset from either that company or a third party vendor (who estimates the size)

Option 3: Depending on the building arrangement the retailer is in, you may be able to get leasing data by brousing retail lease listings, but since the property is occupied, it isn't for rent (and those businesses rarely get up and move).

There is also a difference between total square footage of a store and square footage of the sales floor...
posted by Nanukthedog at 12:47 PM on August 23, 2011

Your local planning commission or similar will have records on file from when they approved the development/modification/whatever. Oftentimes the agenda packets the members of the commission are given by staff are available for download.

Note I didn't say it would be easy. ;)
posted by wierdo at 6:22 AM on August 24, 2011