Background Research

The Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) is B.C.'s largest retailer, employing thousands of British Columbians in over 220 government liquor stores across the province. The branch's vision is to be consistently recognized as a superior retailer - through the provision of excellent products and services, and by establishing effective relationships with customers and stakeholders - in each of the communities it serves.

As British Columbia's largest retailer, LDB is an exemplary and successful retail corporation. Throughout the year, LDB retail store redesigns and relocations continued to provide improved customer service, with major renovations in three stores, including our award-winning Orchard Park store in Kelowna. To continue their success, they try to launch into corporate technological change, introducing a wireless system to handle all product activity in the store. In addition, the branch began the implementation of a new Retail Management System to modernize cash register and retail functions in all stores in the coming year.

May be affected by my part time job (I am working in a flyer/local paper distribution company), I am especially interested in Demographic/Marketing GIS.

Moreover, due to my interest of wine, the goal of this project is to investigate which area is suitable to open a new high-tech liquor store in lower mainland. The analysis will be based on different social criteria, and economic criteria.

Social Criteria:

Youth Drinking: Statistics and Consequences

Despite a minimum legal drinking age of 21, many young people in the United States consume alcohol. Some abuse alcohol by drinking frequently or by binge drinking--often defined as having five or more drinks in a row.

Thirteen- to fifteen-year-olds are at high risk to begin drinking. According to results of an annual survey of students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grades, 26 percent of 8th graders, 40 percent of 10th graders, and 51 percent of 12th graders reported drinking alcohol within the past month. Binge drinking at least once during the 2 weeks before the survey was reported by 16 percent of 8th graders, 25 percent of 10th graders, and 30 percent of 12th graders.

A survey focusing on the alcohol-related problems experienced by 4,390 high school seniors and dropouts found that within the preceding year, approximately 80 percent reported either getting "drunk," binge drinking, or drinking and driving. More than half said that drinking had caused them to feel sick, miss school or work, get arrested, or have a car crash.

Some adolescents who drink later abuse alcohol and may develop alcoholism. Although these conditions are defined for adults in the DSM, research suggests that separate diagnostic criteria may be needed for youth.

In this analysis, I choose the age group (0-19) and school area as an example for this criteria.

Does Stress Influence Drinking?

Human research to clarify the connection between alcohol and stress usually has been conducted using either population surveys based on subject self-reports or experimental studies. In many but not all of these studies, individuals report that they drink in response to stress and do so for a variety of reasons.

Studies indicate that people drink as a means of coping with economic stress, job stress, and marital problems, often in the absence of social support, and that the more severe and chronic the stressor, the greater the alcohol consumption. However, whether an individual will drink in response to stress appears to depend on many factors, including possible genetic determinants of drinking in response to stress, an individual's usual drinking behavior, one's expectations regarding the effect of alcohol on stress, the intensity and type of stressor, the individual's sense of control over the stressor, the range of one's responses to cope with the perceived stress, and the availability of social support to buffer the effects of stress.

Some researchers have found that high levels of stress may influence drinking when alternative resources are lacking, when alcohol is accessible, and when the individual believes that alcohol will help to reduce the stress.

In my analysis, I choose unemployment as the source of stress.

Economic Criteria:

From the principle of geography and economic, we know that people tend to spend more or go there more frequently to a store if it is near and can be accessible easily. I choose the shopping area and residential area as an example to study for this criteria.

Consumer spending potential

A predict study of the potential consumer spending can help to foresee how much people spend on specific goods based on past statistics.

Income

Higher income tend to have higher purchasing power.

Reference:

- http://www.bcliquorstores.com

- http://www.wineenthusiast.com

- Statistic Canada

- http://www.niaaa.nih.gov

- Ellickson, P.L., et al. Teenagers and alcohol misuse in the United States: By any definition, it's a big problem. Addiction 91(10):1489-1503, 1996.

- Martin, C.S., et al. Staging in the onset of DSM-IV alcohol symptoms in adolescents: Survival/hazard analyses. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 57:549-558, 1996.

- Sadava, S.W., & Pak A.W. Stress-related problem drinking and alcohol problems: A longitudinal study and extension of Marlatt's model. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science 25(3):446-464, 1993.

- Volpicelli, J.R. Uncontrollable events and alcohol drinking. British Journal of Addiction 82(4): 381-392, 1987.

- Kalant, H. Stress-related effects of ethanol in mammals. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology 9(4):265-272, 1990.

- Tsigos, C., & Chrousos, G.P. The neuroendocrinology of the stress response. In: Hunt, W., & Zakhari, S., eds. Stress, Gender, and Alcohol- Seeking Behavior. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Research Monograph No. 29. Bethesda, MD: the Institute, 1995.