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December-2019 Release Notes

almost 5 years ago by Ryan Fox Squire

Fun fact: Santa Claus, Inc. Operations Center was an early adopter of SafeGraph Places. They use POI data to plan North American sleigh routing and optimize supply chain logistics for the extensive Claus Workshop vendor network.

Welcome to the December-2019 Places release notes (v2019-11-29/1575021812) shipped 2019-12-05.

Highlights

  • SafeGraph Places now has 6,050,918 places in United States and Canada.
  • Over 50,000 parks are now included in SafeGraph Places. 🌳 🌳 🌳
  • Major improvement to NAICS accuracy while maintaining high coverage. Our naics_code coverage is still over 96% and we estimate accuracy is over 90%. 📈

Table of Contents:

Core Places and Brands

Enhancements - Core Places and Brands

  • Last month SG Places had 5,954,839 points-of-interest. This month SG Places has 6,050,918 points-of-interest (net + 96,079 places). These are 5,363,105 US Places and 687,813 CA places.
    • For details on why we have ~ 100k new places see: Improved coverage for high-value categories below.
  • We've added net 63 new brands 🎊 Including some Canada-only brands.
  • New Brands Include...
    • Mucho Burrito (muchoburrito.com, SG_BRAND_efa564e879e607a3ddab88327795737f) with 100 places. Note: This brand has only Canada locations.
    • Chevron Extra Mile (chevronextramile.com, SG_BRAND_9068e65ac967694) with 889 places.
    • United Pacific (unitedoilco.com, SG_BRAND_25ac38f4c45a0186b72a542922ce11ca) with 92 places.
    • Ben Bridge Jeweler (benbridge.com, SG_BRAND_380df5d8bb8ac6fd161f03c03c60f684) with 85 places.
    • Parker's Corp (parkerskitchen.com, SG_BRAND_4e46d90be4603b72) with 64 places.
    • QFC (Quality Food Centers) (qfc.com, SG_BRAND_42d5b0416d0686b72e492f2a0eed218c) with 62 places.
    • Dillons Supermarkets (dillons.com, SG_BRAND_d78ceac2bccbf42aeee568ea6b0db8e8) with 53 places.
    • Budget Inn (budgetinn.com, SG_BRAND_364ec78b715ac98a) with 48 places.
    • Clark's Pump-n-Shop (myclarkspns.com, SG_BRAND_014a719b7e64084e) with 36 places.
    • WellNow Urgent Care (wellnow.com, SG_BRAND_cfef6bf4adc5adc3) with 36 places.
    • Street Corner (streetcorner.com, SG_BRAND_27ba4dcb9560618) with 35 places.
    • Maplefields (maplefields.com, SG_BRAND_f378e0ed46d1028d) with 35 places.
    • And 51 more!! 📈
  • Improved coverage for high-value categories like Parks, Breweries, and Jewelry Stores. We are making a concerted effort to improve coverage for many non-branded POI. Here are some of those improved categories (NAICS) in this release:
    • Parks (712190). Net POI count change: 52,793. 💯 📈 🌳
    • Breweries (312120). Net POI count change: 1,619.
    • Jewelry Stores (448310). Net POI count change: 820.
1212

SafeGraph Places includes over 104,000 parks
NAICS 712190 - Nature Parks and Other Similar Institutions.
52,000+ are new POI in
the Dec-2019 Release.

Clockwise starting lower right: sg:1f9c370d7cd24bf884ee766f81161c4b, sg:c24fdcd32dab49d182bad3292cb4b22, sg:ea16d8ed314a45bb8357b93da98a842a

Bug Fixes and Known Issues - Core Places and Brands

  • Improved NAICS accuracy. Based on super helpful customer feedback, we are working hard to improve the accuracy of our NAICS codes. We have made changes to our category system with the following improvements:

    • POI Incorrectly Categorized as 711510 (Independent Artists, Writers, and Performers). Now over 2,500 POI previously categorized as 711510 are more correctly categorized as 713940 (Fitness and Recreational Sports Centers) and others.
    • POI Incorrectly Categorized as 448310 (Jewelry, Luggage & Leather Goods Stores). Now over 6,000 POI previously categorized as 448310 are now more correctly categorized as 812199 (Other Personal Care Services), 453310 (Antiques), 522298 (All Other Nondepository Credit Intermediation), and others.
    • POI incorrectly categorized as 452210 (Department Stores). Now over 6,100 POI previously categorized as 452210 are now more correctly categorized as 811412 (Appliance Repair and Maintenance), 541921 (Photography Studios, Portrait), 512131 (Motion Picture Theaters), and others.
    • POI incorrectly categorized as 452319 (All Other General Merchandise Stores). Now over 2,400 POI previously categorized as 452319 are now more correctly categorized as 445291 (Baked Goods Stores), 722515 (Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars), 111421 (Nursery and Tree Production), 453998 (All Other Miscellaneous Store Retailers), 451110 (Sporting Goods Stores), and others.

  • fred's, (SG_BRAND_e2aec86de8b92b5ab8e16b968c948248). Net POI count change: -69. Bug: Fred's has closed, you will be missed. Note: Fred's Pharmacy (SG_BRAND_19c4152a71673864) is still alive and well.

  • We found some errors with some of our branded POI sourcing, and these fixes resulted in significant changes in the total number of POI for those affected brands. The new count is correct, and for transparency, we list some of these fixes as examples in no particular order.

    • La-Z-Boy, (SG_BRAND_a4b6e5c37c2c14ca7141456566978d42). Net POI count change: 168. Bug: We improved our sourcing for more complete coverage.
    • Country Inn & Suites By Radisson, (SG_BRAND_25091d208ecec1da38f53e7c8c99a76e). Net POI count change: 34. Bug: We improved our sourcing for more complete coverage.
    • Radisson, (SG_BRAND_c01285d1f03561f1cf277f0e832a1d75). Net POI count change: 12. Bug: We improved our sourcing for more complete coverage.
    • Excel Urgent Care, (SG_BRAND_170d294b55b3e0bd). Net POI count change: 10. Bug: We improved our sourcing for more complete coverage.
    • Camping World, (SG_BRAND_8b66c8e8f078b099b1c0b02a08e14522). Net POI count change: -52. Bug: Incorrectly included affiliate brands in past releases (e.g., Gander RV)
    • Bekins Van Lines, (SG_BRAND_a1f53ce03174fe30ae8a10aaf21c18b9). Net POI count change: -14. Bug: Incorrectly included affiliates in Nov release (e.g., American Safety Movers, Inc.)
    • Lafayette Ambassador Bank, (SG_BRAND_bae81d3229580eb77e0d546768b6af9b). Net POI count change: -14. Bug: This brand was acquired by of Fulton Bank (SG_BRAND_19deeb23f9343164c8352e0672688d37).

  • Corrected NAICS codes for select brands. For the following brands, the NAICS code was corrected from the incorrect 722511 (Full-service Restaurants) to the more correct 722513 (Limited-service restaurant):

    • Pizza Hut (SG_BRAND_1f2a4b730dc533366115ba7f5168b074).
    • Arby's (SG_BRAND_f004042e34f9a89a218a216365ccd2c4).
    • Little Caesars (SG_BRAND_3654ed70612445d52bf3b6f6546d1f23).
    • Long John Silver's (SG_BRAND_290f637801d52214fff348be4e835e80).
    • A&W Restaurants (SG_BRAND_40b4494c27453f1487b6f99e4979be16).
    • Checkers Drive-In Restaurants (SG_BRAND_e32aa8be5a97cbed25cfdb82713e7edd).
    • Cicis (SG_BRAND_02a28721f6f21182d697d2944f3c25da).
    • BurgerFi (SG_BRAND_b0821066ff9ef60cc51c11a37d906263).

  • Bad SGPID Churn -- Bad sgpid churn are undesired failures to maintain a consistent safegraph_place_id (sgpid) between releases (see discussion in March 2019 release). We internally track and estimate our performance in this domain and share these numbers in our release notes for maximum transparency. In this release:

    • We dropped 88,562 sgpids (15,700 branded and 72,862 non-branded).
    • We added 184,641 sgpids (16,010 branded and 168,631 non-branded).
    • Explanation: Most of the new POI came from our non-branded special sourcing work and new brands (e.g. 50,000 new parks!). Most of the dropped POI were intentionally dropped; we added filters this month to intentionally remove certain low quality poi that we believe aren't true brick-and-mortar retail places (like a home office). We are continuing to work on better metrics to distinguish these intentional adds and drops from unintentional bad sgpid churn cases.

  • Category Fill Rate We monitor category fill rate with 3 metrics: (1) category fill rate across the entire dataset, (2) category fill rate for branded POI, (3) category fill rate in the brand_info file (brand-level categories). We want all of these numbers to be 100%.

    • (1) All POI category fill rate. Last month 96.1%. This month 96.2%. 📈
    • (2) Branded POI category fill rate. Last month 100%. This month 100% 💯
    • (3) Brand-level category fill rate (brand_info file). Last month 100%. This month 100%. 💯

Geometry

Enhancements - Geometry

  • Improved and additional cartography and polygons. New or improved polygon geometries for ~ 56,000 POI in US and CA, including 52,000 new Parks (see above). The other improved Geometry is focused on improving branded POI (see how we are moving the needle on the percent of branded-no-parent polygons with polygon_class = OWNED). POI :diamond-shape:
1116

Lane Bryant
sg:28f0633af8ac4b19bab2f79b96acc7e2
Located at 3625 Dallas Hwy SW Spc 249, Marietta, GA 30064, US.

One of many new and improved polygons in the December 2019 Places release.

Bug Fixes and Known Issues - Geometry

  • Centroid-Radius Polygons -- As discussed in March 2019 release notes. We internally track centroid-radius polygons vs precise polygons and strive for 100% precise polygons. You can measure this yourself using the is_synthetic column.
  • Percent polygon_class = OWNED (as described in Oct 2019 release notes. We examine polygon_class for all safegraph_place_id that are both (i) branded and (ii) do NOT have a parent_safegraph_place_id; we call this group "branded, no-parent". We want 100% of "branded, no-parent" POI to have polygon_class = OWNED_POLYGON.

Patterns

Enhancements - Patterns

  • In last month's delivery SG Patterns had 3,646,476 points-of-interest (US only). This month SG Patterns has 3,569,113 points-of-interest (US only) (net - 77,363 places).
  • Last month SG Patterns had 1,022,961,940 visits from 38,321,823 visitors. This month SG Patterns has 956,256,848 visits from 33,829,366 visitors (delta - 66,705,092 visits, - 4,492,457 visitors).
    • Note: The total visits count decreased by about 6.5% due to changes in our movement data supply. These will be reflected in all patterns numbers, so this is a good opportunity to use the panel overview summary files as a reference for the total size of the panel from which Patterns is measured. 

Also check out these new ways to get SafeGraph data: 
  * Need some extra data on other SafeGraph products? Check out the [SafeGraph Data Bar.](https://shop.safegraph.com/) 
  * Are you an Esri or ArcGIS user? Check out our FREE data [SafeGraph Places in the Esri Marketplace](https://marketplace.arcgis.com/listing.html?id=3425348e4bee4059af2b353e52df43c2).
  * Or just drop us a line! Your data needs are our data delights!

p.s. **[SafeGraph Core Places & Geometry is now available in Canada](https://docs.safegraph.com/changelog/october-2019-release-notes#section-canada-places-version-1-0-available-for-core-places-and-geometry-in-october-release)**