The list included seven categories of outlet: public houses, off-sales (including super-markets), private members' clubs (e.g. social clubs, sports clubs, student unions, etc)., entertainment (e.g. bingo halls, casinos, concert halls, nightclubs, etc)., restaurants, refreshment (cafe style premises where alcohol may be served with food) and hotels.
We calculated the total count of outlets in each data zone, coded as 0, 1, 2, or 3+ for each category of outlet.
Six categories of retail outlets were included: supermarkets, CTNs, grocery/convenience stores, petrol station/garage forecourt stores, off-licences (liquor stores) and fast food/take-away outlets.
If researchers are constrained to use one geographic scale with multiple categories of food outlets, using Census tract or 1 km buffer as the neighbourhood geographic unit is likely to allow researchers to detect most significant relationships.
The number of prices chosen to represent each type of city (or metropolitan area), type of outlet, and category of commodity would ideally be proportionate to its relative importance in the expenditures of the nation.
* Amazon.com offers an outlet section with 13 categories of discount merchandise.
For example, 'distance to alcohol outlet' does not capture the effects of outlet clustering and a high outlet density does not necessarily mean a decreased distance to outlets.
Measures were calculated separately for each type of outlet.
Outlet characteristics included type of outlet (pharmacy, drug store [DLDB or ADDO], general store), and urban or rural location.
There are 13 categories of licence defined under the Sunday Trading Ordinance, 2002, including those for grocery stores, fuel outlets and souvenir shops.
But there are broader categories of local data that user-generated reviews could tap into like with drug stores or local retail outlets.
