In recent years, the retail environment has become deeply
             fragmented. A Consumers options for buying food have greatly
             expanded as a result of continual evolvement from the retail
             industry. The shift from conventional purchase formats to non-
             traditional developments, impose heightened competitive pressure on
             supermarkets. The accelerated growth of different retail formats and
             transformations in product delivery channels has changed the
             competitive structure of the industry and the landscape of the
             retail trade. Warehouse stores and super-centers are quickly moving
             into market segments once dominated by department stores and
             supermarkets. Product offerings of recent retail formats such as
             warehouse clubs coincide to an extent with those of established
             formats like grocery. This overlap distorts intertype distinction,
             imposing the need for comprehensive understanding of retail
             Location, location, location is a mantra for retail success. Store location
             remains a crucial driver of store performance in the modern retail
             environments (Tammo, 20120). Retailers preferred store location depends on
             various aspect such as, type of industry, product category, and the degree
             of competition (Tammo, 20120). With a consumer lens, distance of travel
             strongly influences attractiveness of store, and from a retailer's lens,
             choice of positioning holds great capital investments that ultimately
             determines the trade area of the store.
             To investigate the strategic importance of location decision, we examine
             the retailer "Costco" and evaluate the location site against creating
             strategic advantage. In our evaluations we examine Costco's trade area,
             in first defining, than analyzing by looking at geographical information
             to address factors concerning store type, competitor placement, and the time
             taken to travel to the store. Characteristics of the population, economic base,
             competition and level of ret...