Americ The Country With A Blended Culture - 1320 Words

America: The Country with a â€Å"Blended† Culture People are judge-mental about everything these days; they tend not to let anything pass them by because they feel as if they will miss something important that is going on around them. Someone may not call this being judge-mental, but rather observing and analyzing. Anyone can interpret this how they want, the bottom line is people are paying attention to the way others around them dress, act, eat, speak, worship and how they live their daily lives overall. Most people would define this as describing someone’s culture. According to Cristina De Rossi, an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London, â€Å"Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we great visitors, how we behave with loved ones, and a million other things† (â€Å"American Culture†). With that being said, America does not really have its own culture, but rather a culture that is made up of many cultures due to the fact that many immigrants migrate in and bring their own types of food, religion, languages and customs, which ultimately contributes to America’s â€Å"blended† culture (â€Å"What is Culture?†). Traveling across America, someone would come across greater options of food than they would traveling across any other country. The reason being is there are many immigrants who live here permanently and bring certain recipes from their countries

A Game of Thrones Chapter Nine Free Essays

Tyrion Somewhere in the great stone maze of Winterfell, a wolf howled. The sound hung over the castle like a flag of mourning. Tyrion Lannister looked up from his books and shivered, though the library was snug and warm. We will write a custom essay sample on A Game of Thrones Chapter Nine or any similar topic only for you Order Now Something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of the mind, running naked before the pack. When the direwolf howled again, Tyrion shut the heavy leatherbound cover on the book he was reading, a hundred-year-old discourse on the changing of the seasons by a long-dead maester. He covered a yawn with the back of his hand. His reading lamp was flickering, its oil all but gone, as dawn light leaked through the high windows. He had been at it all night, but that was nothing new. Tyrion Lannister was not much a one for sleeping. His legs were stiff and sore as he eased down off the bench. He massaged some life back into them and limped heavily to the table where the septon was snoring softly, his head pillowed on an open book in front of him. Tyrion glanced at the title. A life of the Grand Maester Aethelmure, no wonder. â€Å"Chayle,† he said softly. The young man jerked up, blinking, confused, the crystal of his order swinging wildly on its silver chain. â€Å"I’m off to break my fast. See that you return the books to the shelves. Be gentle with the Valyrian scrolls, the parchment is very dry. Ayrmidon’s Engines of War is quite rare, and yours is the only complete copy I’ve ever seen.† Chayle gaped at him, still half-asleep. Patiently, Tyrion repeated his instructions, then clapped the septon on the shoulder and left him to his tasks. Outside, Tyrion swallowed a lungful of the cold morning air and began his laborious descent of the steep stone steps that corkscrewed around the exterior of the library tower. It was slow going; the steps were cut high and narrow, while his legs were short and twisted. The rising sun had not yet cleared the walls of Winterfell, but the men were already hard at it in the yard below. Sandor Clegane’s rasping voice drifted up to him. â€Å"The boy is a long time dying. I wish he would be quicker about it.† Tyrion glanced down and saw the Hound standing with young Joffrey as squires swarmed around them. â€Å"At least he dies quietly,† the prince replied. â€Å"It’s the wolf that makes the noise. I could scarce sleep last night.† Clegane cast a long shadow across the hard-packed earth as his squire lowered the black helm over his head. â€Å"I could silence the creature, if it please you,† he said through his open visor. His boy placed a longsword in his hand. He tested the weight of it, slicing at the cold morning air. Behind him, the yard rang to the clangor of steel on steel. The notion seemed to delight the prince. â€Å"Send a dog to kill a dog!† he exclaimed. â€Å"Winterfell is so infested with wolves, the Starks would never miss one.† Tyrion hopped off the last step onto the yard. â€Å"I beg to differ, nephew,† he said. â€Å"The Starks can count past six. Unlike some princes I might name.† Joffrey had the grace at least to blush. â€Å"A voice from nowhere,† Sandor said. He peered through his helm, looking this way and that. â€Å"Spirits of the air!† The prince laughed, as he always laughed when his bodyguard did this mummer’s farce. Tyrion was used to it. â€Å"Down here.† The tall man peered down at the ground, and pretended to notice him. â€Å"The little lord Tyrion,† he said. â€Å"My pardons. I did not see you standing there.† â€Å"I am in no mood for your insolence today.† Tyrion turned to his nephew. â€Å"Joffrey, it is past time you called on Lord Eddard and his lady, to offer them your comfort.† Joffrey looked as petulant as only a boy prince can look. â€Å"What good will my comfort do them?† â€Å"None,† Tyrion said. â€Å"Yet it is expected of you. Your absence has been noted.† â€Å"The Stark boy is nothing to me,† Joffrey said. â€Å"I cannot abide the wailing of women.† Tyrion Lannister reached up and slapped his nephew hard across the face. The boy’s cheek began to redden. â€Å"One word,† Tyrion said, â€Å"and I will hit you again.† â€Å"I’m going to tell Mother!† Joffrey exclaimed. Tyrion hit him again. Now both cheeks flamed. â€Å"You tell your mother,† Tyrion told him. â€Å"But first you get yourself to Lord and Lady Stark, and you fall to your knees in front of them, and you tell them how very sorry you are, and that you are at their service if there is the slightest thing you can do for them or theirs in this desperate hour, and that all your prayers go with them. Do you understand? Do you?† The boy looked as though he was going to cry. Instead, he managed a weak nod. Then he turned and fled headlong from the yard, holding his cheek. Tyrion watched him run. A shadow fell across his face. He turned to find Clegane looming overhead like a cliff. His soot-dark armor seemed to blot out the sun. He had lowered the visor on his helm. It was fashioned in the likeness of a snarling black hound, fearsome to behold, but Tyrion had always thought it a great improvement over Clegane’s hideously burned face. â€Å"The prince will remember that, little lord,† the Hound warned him. The helm turned his laugh into a hollow rumble. â€Å"I pray he does,† Tyrion Lannister replied. â€Å"If he forgets, be a good dog and remind him.† He glanced around the courtyard. â€Å"Do you know where I might find my brother?† â€Å"Breaking fast with the queen.† â€Å"Ah,† Tyrion said. He gave Sandor Clegane a perfunctory nod and walked away as briskly as his stunted legs would carry him, whistling. He pitied the first knight to try the Hound today. The man did have a temper. A cold, cheerless meal had been laid out in the morning room of the Guest House. Jaime sat at table with Cersei and the children, talking in low, hushed voices. â€Å"Is Robert still abed?† Tyrion asked as he seated himself, uninvited, at the table. His sister peered at him with the same expression of faint distaste she had worn since the day he was born. â€Å"The king has not slept at all,† she told him. â€Å"He is with Lord Eddard. He has taken their sorrow deeply to heart.† â€Å"He has a large heart, our Robert,† Jaime said with a lazy smile. There was very little that Jaime took seriously. Tyrion knew that about his brother, and forgave it. During all the terrible long years of his childhood, only Jaime had ever shown him the smallest measure of affection or respect, and for that Tyrion was willing to forgive him most anything. A servant approached. â€Å"Bread,† Tyrion told him, â€Å"and two of those little fish, and a mug of that good dark beer to wash them down. Oh, and some bacon. Burn it until it turns black.† The man bowed and moved off. Tyrion turned back to his siblings. Twins, male and female. They looked very much the part this morning. Both had chosen a deep green that matched their eyes. Their blond curls were all a fashionable tumble, and gold ornaments shone at wrists and fingers and throats. Tyrion wondered what it would be like to have a twin, and decided that he would rather not know. Bad enough to face himself in a looking glass every day. Another him was a thought too dreadful to contemplate. Prince Tommen spoke up. â€Å"Do you have news of Bran, Uncle?† â€Å"I stopped by the sickroom last night,† Tyrion announced. â€Å"There was no change. The maester thought that a hopeful sign.† â€Å"I don’t want Brandon to die,† Tommen said timorously. He was a sweet boy. Not like his brother, but then Jaime and Tyrion were somewhat less than peas in a pod themselves. â€Å"Lord Eddard had a brother named Brandon as well,† Jaime mused. â€Å"One of the hostages murdered by Targaryen. It seems to be an unlucky name.† â€Å"Oh, not so unlucky as all that, surely,† Tyrion said. The servant brought his plate. He ripped off a chunk of black bread. Cersei was studying him warily. â€Å"What do you mean?† Tyrion gave her a crooked smile. â€Å"Why, only that Tommen may get his wish. The maester thinks the boy may yet live.† He took a sip of beer. Myrcella gave a happy gasp, and Tommen smiled nervously, but it was not the children Tyrion was watching. The glance that passed between Jaime and Cersei lasted no more than a second, but he did not miss it. Then his sister dropped her gaze to the table. â€Å"That is no mercy. These northern gods are cruel to let the child linger in such pain.† â€Å"What were the maester’s words?† Jaime asked. The bacon crunched when he bit into it. Tyrion chewed thoughtfully for a moment and said, â€Å"He thinks that if the boy were going to die, he would have done so already. It has been four days with no change.† â€Å"Will Bran get better, Uncle?† little Myrcella asked. She had all of her mother’s beauty, and none of her nature. â€Å"His back is broken, little one,† Tyrion told her. â€Å"The fall shattered his legs as well. They keep him alive with honey and water, or he would starve to death. Perhaps, if he wakes, he will be able to eat real food, but he will never walk again.† â€Å"If he wakes,† Cersei repeated. â€Å"Is that likely?† â€Å"The gods alone know,† Tyrion told her. â€Å"The maester only hopes.† He chewed some more bread. â€Å"I would swear that wolf of his is keeping the boy alive. The creature is outside his window day and night, howling. Every time they chase it away, it returns. The maester said they closed the window once, to shut out the noise, and Bran seemed to weaken. When they opened it again, his heart beat stronger.† The queen shuddered. â€Å"There is something unnatural about those animals,† she said. â€Å"They are dangerous. I will not have any of them coming south with us.† Jaime said, â€Å"You’ll have a hard time stopping them, sister. They follow those girls everywhere.† Tyrion started on his fish. â€Å"Are you leaving soon, then?† â€Å"Not near soon enough,† Cersei said. Then she frowned. â€Å"Are we leaving?† she echoed. â€Å"What about you? Gods, don’t tell me you are staying here?† Tyrion shrugged. â€Å"Benjen Stark is returning to the Night’s Watch with his brother’s bastard. I have a mind to go with them and see this Wall we have all heard so much of.† Jaime smiled. â€Å"I hope you’re not thinking of taking the black on us, sweet brother.† Tyrion laughed. â€Å"What, me, celibate? The whores would go begging from Dorne to Casterly Rock. No, I just want to stand on top of the Wall and piss off the edge of the world.† Cersei stood abruptly. â€Å"The children don’t need to hear this filth. Tommen, Myrcella, come.† She strode briskly from the morning room, her train and her pups trailing behind her. Jaime Lannister regarded his brother thoughtfully with those cool green eyes. â€Å"Stark will never consent to leave Winterfell with his son lingering in the shadow of death.† â€Å"He will if Robert commands it,† Tyrion said. â€Å"And Robert will command it. There is nothing Lord Eddard can do for the boy in any case.† â€Å"He could end his torment,† Jaime said. â€Å"I would, if it were my son. It would be a mercy.† â€Å"I advise against putting that suggestion to Lord Eddard, sweet brother,† Tyrion said. â€Å"He would not take it kindly.† â€Å"Even if the boy does live, he will be a cripple. Worse than a cripple. A grotesque. Give me a good clean death.† Tyrion replied with a shrug that accentuated the twist of his shoulders. â€Å"Speaking for the grotesques,† he said, â€Å"I beg to differ. Death is so terribly final, while life is full of possibilities.† Jaime smiled. â€Å"You are a perverse little imp, aren’t you?† â€Å"Oh, yes,† Tyrion admitted. â€Å"I hope the boy does wake. I would be most interested to hear what he might have to say.† His brother’s smile curdled like sour milk. â€Å"Tyrion, my sweet brother,† he said darkly, â€Å"there are times when you give me cause to wonder whose side you are on.† Tyrion’s mouth was full of bread and fish. He took a swallow of strong black beer to wash it all down, and grinned up wolfishly at Jaime, â€Å"Why, Jaime, my sweet brother,† he said, â€Å"you wound me. You know how much I love my family.† How to cite A Game of Thrones Chapter Nine, Essay examples

Achilles God or Beast free essay sample

Title Joel Abudarham World Views-Ancient Greek Civilization Marie Michelle Wilband â€Å"He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god. † -Aristotle Tuesday October 2nd, 2012 Achilles is the main character, and, without doubt, the most complex character in Homer’s famous poem, The Iliad. Son of the goddess nymph Thetis and the king of the Myrmidons, Peleus, Achilles is a semi-god, known throughout and beyond Greece for his strength and fighting abilities. Stories on the epic hero Achilles are numerous, like the legend of Prometheus’, the fore thinker, prophecy regarding the birth of Thetis’ son, or the legend of Achilles bathing in the Styx River. However, Achilles name was made immortal with the tale of the Trojan War in Homer’s Iliad. In fact, the major theme in Homer’s poem is the uncontrollable rage and wrath of Achilles. In the following character analysis, I will examine Achilles’ personal traits and behavior, and express whether the character has gone through changes at the end of the poem.Leading his nation the Myrmidons, Achilles and the rest of the Greek army are laying siege on the city of Troy and parked on its shore. Inside the Greek camp, there is no doubt that the semi-god Achilles is the greatest warrior. No other king or hero can pretend to be a greater hero than Achilles. His excellence in the battlefield and his godly strength, his arete, is recognized by the Greeks, the Trojans and even the Olympian gods.Achilles possesses superhuman strength and abilities, and share a close relationship with the gods. This makes him what Greeks call ‘epic hero’ and these abilities are his arete. However, Achilles many flaws have a central part in the poem. In the beginning, we realize that Achilles has a strong sense of social order and is an important figure in the Greek camp. In fact, as a deadly plague sent by Apollo is decimating the Greeks, Achilles is the first to take the initiative to discover the reason behind god Apollo’s anger.Secondly, we also realize that Achilles doesn’t follow the hierarchal order set in the Greek camp: By calling an assembly and ordering to Agamemnon, leader of the Achaean army, to give back Chrysies in order to appease Apollo’s wrath, Achilles upsets the order of the Greek protocol and insults Aga memnon. At first, Agamemnon isn’t reluctant to give up his war prize and slave. Finally, Agamemnon accepts but demands Briseis in exchange, Achilles’ own prize. Achilles is forced to accept, and is for the first time in the tale of The Iliad overtaken by his wild fury and rage (he attempted to kill Agamemnon, but Athena stopped him).For Achilles, the loss of Briseis is comparable to the kidnapping of Helen (the cause of the Trojan War); this means that the quarrel between him and Agamemnon is equally righteous to the conquest of Troy. However, what really angers Achilles is consequence for his reputation: Just like Agamemnon, the loss of a war prize can affect the arete and the reputation of ‘great and epic hero’. In fact, ones arete were measured by the war prizes brought back home. Achilles decides to withdraw from the war with his men, and stand by the boats near the shore. At this point, his anger towards Agamemnon has not dissipated and some major flaws come out of Achilles. In fact, his pride forces him not to join the battle and even pray to Zeus for the Trojans to win and slaughter his fellow Greeks. In addition, we witness his lack of nobility and human integrity; human integration attributes are essential in Homer’s tale. By withdrawing from the battle, Achilles is awaiting for the admiration of the Greek soldiers and is fuelled and obsessed by his personal glory (â€Å"A man dies still if he has done nothing†).By praying for the death of the Achaean army, Achilles doesn’t only chose personal glory over the common good, but he loses his human integrity and identity and acts like a god. This pretentious, arrogant and self-sufficient behavior is called in ancient Greek civilization ‘Hubris’. ‘Hubris’, considered as the only sin for ancient Greeks, is trying to break the holy and sacred order of the cos mos. For Achilles, his arete consists of attaining his maximum potential, a potential he believes to be grater than a simple mortal; therefore he acts as a god.By thinking he is a god, Achilles attains ‘Hubris’, and the consequence for the act of ‘Hubris’ is ‘Nemesis’. Achilles’ Nemesis, a deep and hard pain, is the death of one of the few men he shared compassion and true friendship. At the battlefield, Patroclus has been killed by the Trojan prince Hector. Achilles’ nemesis, the death of Patroclus, is a significant pain for Achilles because he realizes that he is responsible for his friend’s death. In addition, Achilles’ nemesis reminds him of a fundamental truth: He is not a god. Achilles realizes that he is dependent on the men who surround him, and he accepts his own death. In fact, by heading back to the war and deciding to revenge his friend’s memory by killing Hector, Achilles faces his own death. However, his rage and anger remain; in fact it is only transferred from Agamemnon to Hector and the Trojans. So, Achilles heads back to the battlefield and his strength is now greater than before, causing the gods to intervene in the war because â€Å"he (Achilles) will raze the wall against the will of fate† according to Zeus. Achilles mission is to slaughter Patroclus’ killer, prince Hector. After a game of ‘hide and seek’, Hector decides to confront Achilles in a duel.In his nobility, Hector swears that if he is victorious, Achilles’ body will be treated with respect and given back to the Greeks, but Achilles categorically refuses, another example of his lack of nobility. After the duel and the death of Hector, the lifeless body of the prince of Troy is atrociously dragged by Achilles’ chariot to the Greek camp, where the corpse will be stabbed multiple times and left unburied for days. However, even after Hector’s death, Achilles wrath isn’t quite quenched; he now punishes and slaughters ruthlessly hundreds of Trojans (for example during the burial of Patroclus).With his son still not mourned, Priam, the elder king of Troy, decides to enter secretly Achilles’ tent and beg him with a ransom his son’s corpse. For the first time, Achilles acts with compassion towards an enemy, one of his few acts of nobility. He recognizes Priam’s courage to adventure himself in the heart of the Achaean camp and his own tent, and understands Priam’s sadness and grief, after Priam appeals to Achilles’ father, Peleus. It is unclear whether Priam’s cries and plea have transformed Achilles, or whether this scene testifies Achilles capacity for grief.

Mc Donalds and Burger King free essay sample

His seemingly endless enthusiasm and constant support helped me thru-out my program at Kent State University. I thank my other committee members Dr. Shawn Banasick and Dr. Chuanrong Zhang for their valuable comments and suggestions. I thank Dr. Milton Harvey and Mrs. Mary Lou Church for their affection and concerns. I am grateful to them and all my friends at McGilvrey Hall, for being the surrogate family during my years at Kent and their continued moral support thereafter. I thank Dr. MunroStasiuk, Dr. Schmidlin, Dr. Sheridan, Dr. Kaplan, Dr. Haley, Dr. Dymon, Dr. Bhardwaj and other faculty members in the Department of Geography for making the atmosphere in the department stimulating for research and academics. The Kent State University Library staffs are acknowledged for their efficiency and availability. A particular thanks to Edith Scarletto, Head of the Map Library, who helped me, gather the initial data required for the research. I would like to thank my friend Sathy for his help in formatting the entire text. We will write a custom essay sample on Mc Donalds and Burger King or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page I am forever indebted to my family, for their blessings and love and who have supported and encouraged me to do my best in all matters of life. Particular thanks, to my husband, Harsha, for his tireless support, love and affection and without whom I would have struggled to find the inspiration and motivation needed to complete this thesis. ix Last but not the least, I dedicate my thesis to my Grandmother â€Å"Jhaiji† who’s Blessings and loving support has encouraged me throughout my academic career and life. Sadly, Jhaiji left for her heavenly abode just a few days before the thesis was submitted. x Chapter 1 Introduction There has been a growing interest among the academia and the private sector for the use of GIS techniques in the analysis and planning of retail store network. Almost without exceptions, various retail organizations need to plan for complex consumer markets and keep up with competitions. Over the past few decades the methodologies used for research of sighting of retail outlets have become more sophisticated as a result of applicable modeling procedures being developed with GIS. This study conducts a retail location analysis of the relationship between the fast-food store performance of McDonald’s and Burger King and the various spatial and socio-economic factors of their respective catchment areas. Analytical procedures in GIS and statistical techniques have been applied to carry out the analysis in this study. In particular, study areas have been partitioned into a set of Thiessen polygons and into various spatial configurations using variable buffer polygons to emulate various spatial configurations of catchment areas (i. e. , trade areas) associated with each fast food store. The socio-economic profiles in the partitioned polygons have been analyzed with a series of regression models. The result of the study brought out a better understanding of how location factors influence the performance of 1 2 the stores as well as how the socio-economic attributes of the catchment areas affect the store revenues. 1. 1 Research Objectives: The main objective of this retail location analysis is to develop and apply methodology for analyzing the relationship between fast food store performance and the various socio-economic and demographic factors with various spatial configurations of their catchment areas in Portage and Summit Counties. The traditional role of GIS in retail demand-and-supply analysis has been to analyze market characteristics such as consumer demand, geodemographics, traffic flow, competitor locations, etc. and to search for an optimal location for a new retail outlet or to close retail outlets in over crowded markets. Knowing the geographical distributions of retail demand and supply is important in conducting marketing analysis using GIS analytical tools. GIS can overlay different data sets onto one another in an integrated environment. GIS analytical tools have been widely applied for exploring the relationships between demand and supply in many types of business practices, including operations of fast food restaurants. However, perhaps due to relatively low real estate costs and flexible rentals or perhaps due to the all too often time lag in adopting newly emerging technology, many retailers do not make use of sophisticated location analysis methods that are now available. Many a times, retailers follow the location decisions previously made by anchor retailers. The choice of a store location has a profound effect on the entire business of a retail operation. For picking an optimal store-site, it is necessary to utilize data of the demographics of that area (income, family size, age, ethnic composition, etc of the population), traffic patterns, and similar kind of retail outlets or competition in the area. These factors are basic to all retail location analysis. GIS tools can help to find the right site along wit h market penetration, market share and trade areas by combining aerial photos/maps, competitors’ locations, geodemographic factors, customer surveys and census data. GIS market analysis tools can also help to determine whether the products match the lifestyle and buying patterns of the customers. In this study- Retail Location Analysis: A Case Study of Burger King McDonald’s in Portage Summit Counties, Ohio, an analysis of catchment areas of the analyzed restaurants has been done using a series of regression models to analyze socio-economic and demographic factors in various spatial configurations of the study area. The study area has been partitioned to a set of Thiessen Polygons and also to sets of spatial configurations by using different buffering zones surrounding the retail outlets to create different proximity polygons for further analysis. Thiessen polygons define individual areas of influence around each service center, or in this case each fast food restaurant, in a set of points/locations of fast food outlets geocoded in such a way that any locations within a Thiessen polygon are closer to the polygon’s centroid (the retail outlet used to make up the polygon) than to any other retail outlet. Buffer polygons have been constructed around the fast food locations 4 based on various assumptions of how far the distances consumers may be willing to travel to receive fast food services. With the various spatial configurations of Thiessen polygons and buffer polygons as defined by the locations of retail outlets, regression models have been constructed to examine the importance of a set of selected socio-economic and geodemographic factors. The different regression models that use different independent variables as structured by both the Thiessen polygons and Buffer polygons have been done to see how well or poorly either of the two approaches capture the variations in the sales volumes of fast food stores. In today’s world of highly competitive market environment, it has become imperative that retailers must make use of spatial analytical technology to acquire new clientele, retain the existing/current customers, to enable market expansion, and to stay abreast with changing consumer tastes and requirements. Advances in GIS technology reiterates the fact that the future success of retail, real estate and restaurants will be determined to get a great extend by using this smart technology. 1. 2 Summary: Many successful businesses in the United States make use of GIS software to integrate, view and analyze data using geography. Use of GIS techniques enables retailers to understand and visualize spatial relationships and improves productivity and effectiveness of the business processes. The use of multiple regressions modeling in this study has been done to identify how the ethnic composition of population and median 5 household income in the service areas of Burger King and McDonald’s restaurants interact with one another to produce a specific sales outcome. Chapter 2 Problem Statements Retail location analysis is an important part in site selection of a retail store. â€Å"A trade area of a retail store is the geographical area from which it draws most of its customers and within which its market penetration is the highest†(Ghosh and McLafferty, 1987). Retail location analysis also helps to determine the focus areas for marketing promotional activities, highlights geographic weaknesses in the customer base and projecting future growth and expansion of the retail services (Berman and Evans, 2001). 2. 1 Size and Shape of the Retail Trade Area: The size of the retail trade area often depends on the nature of goods and services rendered at the retail outlets, along with the geographical distribution of other competing retail outlets. For instance, fast food restaurants like Burger King and McDonald’s sell goods and services that are popular, easily substituted and affordable by the majority of consumers create a smaller retail trade zone as compared to a specialty restaurant. Usually, retail trade zones are not geometrically regular, i. e. , a circle, a square or a polygon. Rather, the shape of the trade zone is based on road networks, geology and topography of the area, land use of the neighboring areas, etc. 6 7 When examining the way customers travel to make retail purchases, it is always necessary to take into consideration the distance that a customer has to travel. The distances that customers may be willing to travel are different, depending upon the type of object to be purchased. The number of trips undertaken by consumers and the travel time will be different based on specialty or commodity product (Salvaneschi, 1996). For purchasing a specialty product, which is generally expensive, unique or long lasting, the consumer is willing to travel over a longer distance. This tends to expand the trading area of that good or service. On the other hand, to purchase everyday supplies or common items consumers often prefer convenience, as the trips for such goods are frequent, distances are short and travel time is brief. For instance, people typically will not drive to another town for fast food, unless they are on way to or back from other destinations. According to consumer behavior studies the time availability of consumers is an important variable in the convenience and fast food market. Therefore, it should be an important part of market strategy (Darian and Cohen, 1995). In this thesis research, the study area is partitioned into polygons representing trade areas for further analysis. Several different approaches to creating trade areas are used. These include trade areas defined as buffer polygons surrounding fast food restaurants with widths of 1, 2 and 5 miles. In addition, partitioning the study area into a set of collectively inclusive but mutually exclusive Thiessen polygons with the restaurants as polygon centroid also generates trade areas. Generating buffers around features is a commonly used analytical procedure in GIS. Most buffering methods create simple-distance bound geometric buffers around the 8 features. Buffers surrounding retail outlets(or other service-rendering establishments) are also known as service areas, hinterlands or market areas and have useful in many geographical applications (Shaw, 1991; Sierra et al. , 1999; Van Wee et al. , 2001). A buffer delineates the area within a specified distance of a feature. It can be created from points, lines or polygons. The output buffers may be lines or polygons depending upon the features and their distance are specified in map units (Price, 2004). Concentric buffers represent the delineation of multiple levels of proximity. For example, different distances of 1 mile, 2 miles and 5 miles from the store can be used to generate buffer polygons around retail outlets. This type of concentric buffers may reveal patterns of market penetration in which the inner buffers often account for the largest proportion of customers while the density of customers decreases as one moves away from the outlet to the subsequent buffers. This distance-decay effect reflects the impact of geographic accessibility on store patronage. The actual size of the trade area for each store varies, depending on the location of the store. The sharper the distancedecay effect, the smaller would be the trade area for each of the fast food store. For this study a regression models are applied that relates sales outcomes (dependent variable) to many factors such as ethnic composition and median household income (independent variable) of population in the retail trade zones of the Burger King and McDonald’s in Portage and Summit Counties. These regression models show that Burger King’s annual sales are better explained by the included independent variables for buffers with widths of 1 and 2 miles than those of McDonald’s sales by the same set of variables. For a 5-mile buffer and Thiessen polygons, sales are better explained for 9 McDonald’s. Ethnic population and median household income for buffer polygons of 1 and 2 miles around the restaurants better explain annual sales for Burger King and polygons of 5-miles for McDonald’s. 2. Summary: Retail location analysis helps in site selection for a business outlet and in determining the performance of retail outlets in the trade area of the store. The trade area of the store reflects the socio-demographic characteristics of the clientele and is thus useful in determining the marketing strategies. The size and the shape of a retail trade area are determined by the nature of goods and services offered. Since fast food restaurants sell goods that can be easily substituted, majority of consumers form a small retail trade area. Ethnic composition of population and the median household income within the buffer polygons constructed around the fast food restaurants indicate how much time and distance consumers drive or travel to patronize these restaurants. Chapter 3 Literature Review During the past three decades, several important advancements have taken place in spatial-data analysis, data storage, retrieval and mapping. Geographic Information Systems have been very useful in tackling spatial analytic approaches and in forming an interface with the field of location science (Church, 2002). Several studies give an overview of the major impacts of GIS on works done in the field of location science in terms of model application, development and various methods that can be used for landuse suitability modeling (Malczewski, 2004). For example: GIS is now the most widely used software for analyzing, visualizing and mapping spatial data such as retail location analysis, transport networks, land-use patterns and census track data. Since GIS can be used to assemble large volumes of data from various sources with different map scales and in different coordinate systems, it is considered an important tool in location analysis. GIS can combine and simultaneously use several databases by transforming them into a common set of database (Pettit and Pullar, 1999). However, the use of GIS in location analysis involves the aspect of accuracy of representing real world situations in a GIS database. The notion of accuracy is the representation of geographical objects and representing socio-economic, cultural and political elements of the environment within which location analysis is done (Church, 2002). Not only is GIS used 10 11 as the source of input data for a location model, it has also been used as a means to present model results (Malczewski, 2004). . 1 GIS for Business and Service Sector Planning: The growing consumer orientation in business and service planning along with advances in GIS and spatial analysis techniques, have led to the promotion of the use of GIS in the area of business and service planning (Longley and Clark, 1995). Several books and articles assess the use of GIS for supporting business a nd service planning at the level of tactical and strategic decision-making (for example: Davies and Clarke, 1994; Benoit and Clarke, 1997; Clarke, 1998; Birkin, et al. , 2002). These studies aim to further explore and promote the use of GIS in the area of business and service planning by demonstrating the benefits of both methodological advances and evidence of benefits in GIS applications and spatial models in GIS. Business planning requires a critical review of geodemographic features and paying attention to requirements posed by endusers (Longley and Clark, 1995). By linking GIS and spatial analysis software, proprietary GIS can be applied to solving problems in several applications like retail location analysis, localized marketing, etc. This involves the integration of spatial models and GIS customized to the specific information needs of retail organizations for specific localities. Thus spatial modeling is used in the explanation and prediction of interaction between demand and supply for retail facilities and the search for suitable locations for retail outlets in an area. The major theme of these studies is the evolution of GIS towards a more flexible 12 and powerful spatial decision support system (DSS) or intelligent GIS (IGIS), applied in several service sectors, including retailing, financial services and health care. Marketing information systems (MKIS) are decision support systems targeted at marketingspecific decisions (Birkin, Clark and Clark, 1996). There is a realizable benefit in integrating GIS with MKIS because of its ability to provide map-based data presentation considered most effective for decision-makers (Ronald and Lawrence, 2004). 3. 2 GIS as a tool for Retail Location Decision: A dynamic and uncertain environment characterizes retailing and retail organizations as needing to plan for the complex consumer markets, while anticipating and reacting to competitions. This competitive nature of retail environment and the large number of techniques made use of by the retailers in locational planning, has led GIS to be used as an aid in strategic retail decision making and applications (Davies and Clark, 1994). GIS is used not just for location and catchments analysis but also for other retail sector issues such as category management, merchandising, marketing communications and relationship marketing (O’Malley, Patterson and Evans, 1997). Existing literature contains a practical framework and other important issues involved in retail network planning. GIS has contributed immensely in improving the efficiency and precision of retail planning and marketing. Since the 1960s methodologies used for retail outlet location research have become more sophisticated 13 as a result of modeling procedures brought about by GIS (Birkin, Clark and Clark, 2002). The US experience shows that the effective utilization of geospatial databases, and the development of decision support systems (DSS), is becoming a significant source of competitive advantage for retailers over those without. Some retailers further explore information opportunities afforded by GIS technology for their business practices. Rather than relying on customer information alone, they are now combining data from several sources simultaneously in a bid to better support their process of decision-making (Birkin, Clark and Clark, 2002). 3. 3 GIS Methodologies for Retail Location Studies: For analyzing the spatial structure of retail activities with location data at micro scale, a number of technologies are now widely available and utilized. These include application of methods such as Probability Density Function (PDF), Decision Support Systems (DSS), Spatial Interaction Models, Network Huff Model, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) (Byrom, 2005), MATISSE (â€Å"Matching Algorithm, A Technique for Industrial Site Selection and Evaluation†), and RASTT (Retail Aggregate Space Time Trip Model) (Baker, 2003), and others. The Probability Density Function (PDF) of the retail stores is a function of how densities of the subject matters vary over specified dimension. If the specified dimension is time, the probability density function describes how such matter changes their frequencies and distribution over time. Alternatively, if the specified dimension is 14 locations (or space), the probability density function then describes how such matters vary in their spatial patterns. The PDF has been used to analyze the spatial structure of retailing (Sadahiro, 2001). Sadahiro tested the validity of this method by applying this method to the locational data of retail stores in Yokohama. This approach helps to measure the degree of agglomeration, spatial patterns, the relationship between the size and function of retail agglomerations and analyzes the spatial structure of retail agglomeration. Retailers for sales promotion activities and long-term strategic decision-making are increasingly developing GIS as DSS. GIS merges endogenous database by retailers and the exogenous databases sources to introduce retail decision- making and systems implementation (Nasirin and Birks, 2003). As an example, the examination of the experiences of some of the UK based retailers reflecting GIS implementation in retail location analysis shows a highly organized series of process management that has resulted as a result of this application. The Network Huff Model is formulated on a network with the shortest-path distance as an extension of the ordinary Huff (based on Euclidean distance) (Okabe and Okunuki, 2001). This computational method can be used for estimating the demand of retail stores on a street network in a GIS environment. Extending from the gravity model, the original and network Huff models use distances (Euclidean or shortest distance over a network) between retail outlets as inverse weights to estimate divisions of the entire market area into individual trade areas of the retail outlets. The benefits of 15 these models are the ability to meaningfully divide the studied space into a set of trade areas to support retail business operations. MATISSE is a knowledge-based decision support system (KBDSS) based on decision tables that can be used by industrial decision-makers and planners to assess the suitability of potential sites (Witlox, 2003). Witlox explains how a relational approach to the modeling of the site suitability concept can be implemented and tried to find all possible locations that meet the spatial production requirements based on the organizational characteristics of the firm. The growing interest of urban geographers and economic geographers in applying KBS, DSS and integrated system has been largely attributed to the development of computer systems. Computers are able to store, organize and process enormous amount of data as well as make possible the availability and accessibility of the domain-specific knowledge underlying the spatial problem. Witlox has identified three major categories of location factors at the highest level of decision-making. These three conditions are site conditions, investment and operating considerations and make up MATISSE’S head decision table. He points out that the experience with the construction of the system indicates that the developed procedure of knowledge in acquisition worked quite well, however, there are some problems with capturing of compensatory decision-making in terms of the decision table formalism. Nevertheless, the system is at a stage where it can be used in a straightforward manner.