An agent based exploration of a relationship between daily routines and convenience store footfalls

Convenience stores (C-stores) compete not on price but on what are called convenience factors: faster shopping, proximity to home or work, longer work hours. A significant challenge with c-stores is estimating store footfall. We hypothesize that people's daily routines may serendipitously determine their c-store choice. We explore this possibility in two ways. First we look into past studies that suggest this relation. Second we build an agent based model of a community with c-stores where footfalls are triggered by proximity to the store. We use this model to study shopping patterns in the virtual community. We first look at mean distance to stores from home and from a point on one's route. We then explore footfall estimates with and without routines for 3 different layouts. We use T-means to check if the footfall patterns with and without routines are different. We then examine how the factor which determines the frequency of visits to the c-store influences the choice of c-store. Together these explorations provide strong pointers that the relationship between routine and footfall needs to be further researched.