Team Thoughts

Back to all posts

Leeds and the 15-Minute City: A Retail Perspective

Leeds, the biggest city in Europe without a mass transit system. That is set to change. Freddie Wallace explores the benefits and challenges while evaluating the idea of a 15-minute city.

Published 10th March 2025 • Tags team-thoughts
The Importance of Site Visits for Location Planners

While data driven insights are essential, site visits are indispensable for Location Planning. Alison interviewed our Location Planners to find out why we do them and 10 top tips that might help you next time.

Published 1st June 2023 • Tags market-visits, team-thoughts
Inside the Corner Store - ALDI Melbourne

While Rachel was in Australia working on a client project she took time out to explore Melbourne CBD and visited the new ALDI format Corner Store.

Published 24th October 2022 • Tags market-visits, team-thoughts
Machine Learning within Location Planning

Machine Learning is not new. We have used it in Location Planning for years, but new advancements mean now we can do more. Danny shares more about the Geolytix ML journey.

Published 3rd October 2022 • Tags team-thoughts, ai
Where the FAANGs live.

Blair visited Battersea Power Station over the weekend and shared some of his thoughts.

Published 22nd August 2022 • Tags market-visits, team-thoughts
LondonShuffle

Six years ago we had a team social to a newly opened Shuffleboard club called LondonShuffle. We were delighted to support them recently with some location data and analysis.

Published 27th July 2022 • Tags team-thoughts, geodata, market-visits
Porto: Bridges, Hills, Port and Viewpoints

At last, time to dust off the trusty Geolytix tote for my first overseas adventure since the start of 2020. Where's Lou goes international... my first destination: Porto, Portugal's 'second city'.

Published 23rd February 2022 • Tags team-thoughts
Blossom in the Year of the Tiger

Coco discusses Chinese New Year traditions, and the slight alterations made throughout the pandemic.

Published 26th January 2022 • Tags team-thoughts
My work experience week at Geolytix

Gagan Singh Virk joined us in October on a work experience placement from NewVic college. Here he details his week with us...

Published 30th November 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Bonfire Societies - a Sussex phenomenon?

Remember, remember the 5th of November... Realising her bonfire night was a Sussex tradition, Kate talks about the world of Bonfire Societies, using MAPP to look at the possible impact of the festivities road closures.

Published 5th November 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Opening up the World of Location Planning with COOK

COOK approached us, keen to open more shops and concessions; they requested a toolset that would help support them in understanding and analysing the potential of new locations. Challenge accepted, we got to work...

Published 2nd November 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
The top 10 things I learned on the ten-year Geolytix journey

Blair, our CEO has reflected on his 10 years at Geolytix, and has jotted down 10 things that he has learned in the past decade.

Published 28th October 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
10 years of success stories

Geolytix wouldn't be successful without its clients; to celebrate 10 years, we thought we would look back on 10 of our UK projects that have helped us become the company we are today.

Published 27th October 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Refill Stores

Can I get a refill? Zero waste suppliers are on the rise in the UK, and I've been trying out a few innovative local options.

Published 19th October 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Growing our affluence (proxies) - finding the rich and the rest

Sometimes to get the perfect data, you have to think outside the box. Faced with a data limitation, Clive our Data Scientist, turned to Facebook to answer a few affluence questions

Published 29th September 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
In-person events are back on and we couldn't be happier

Our CEO Blair Freebairn headed to his first in-person event since before the pandemic started 18-months ago. Below he details the experience at ODI Canal Side Chats

Published 23rd September 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Is Food Delivery catering for the rural?

The pandemic has brought us a 'new normal'; one such shift has been housing demand. With people looking to relocate to homes outside the city, we look at whether Food Delivery is catering for the Rural.

Published 25th August 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
How to juggle freelance work with a research degree: a masters guide

Oliver Hall recently joined Geolytix as a freelance software configuration developer, whilst completing his Masters at the University of Leeds. Here he discusses juggling masters work, a new job and multiple laptop screens...

Published 17th August 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
3 months after joining Geolytix and I've finally met the team in-person

With offices now allowed to officially open, Lizzie - our latest associate- discusses how working from home didn't hinder the spirit and qualities of Geolytix shining through the virtual workplace.

Published 21st July 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Is Poland turning discount?

With discounters taking more and more market share in Poland, we thought it would be interesting to look at the journey of grocery retail in Poland through the years and try and answer the question: 'Is Poland turning discount?'

Published 30th June 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
EUROS 2020(1): The GEOLYTIX Top Trumps

With the EUROS in full swing (and our office sweepstake well under way) we thought we would honour our appreciation of geography and celebrate the stadiums hosting the EUROS - as well as the teams themselves!

Published 29th June 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Life has changed, and so has retail...

With the one year mark of the start of the pandemic (and multiple lockdowns) far behind us, our Project Director based in China, thought it would be the perfect opportunity to discuss how life - and retail - has changed.

Published 16th June 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
What causes the online halo?

As much as the precise cause of the classic halo is not entirely settled, the online halo is not totally understood by retail planners. Yet their importance when planning and forecasting, means we need to both understand and model them when planning multi-channel networks.

Published 11th May 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Mobility Data: Battle of Birmingham

Birmingham and the Black Country was a highly requested area for us to look at next, and we couldn't resist. This time we've looked at: Aston Villa, Birmingham City, West Brom and Wolves and the results certainly are interesting...

Published 7th May 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Mobility Data Proves It – North London is Ours

Whilst looking through our Unacast mobile device ping data, we decided to use the data to look at which team had the highest active devices on home matchdays. And the results are in.....

Published 19th April 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Visualising Sakura (cherry-blossom)

With COVID muting hanami (flower-watching), the true meaning of Sakura - people gathering under the cherry blossoms drinking and picnicking - I decided to visualise the seasonal phenomenon (and plan my celebrations for next year).

Published 13th April 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
The changing retail landscape

With more stores closing than opening in 2020, it is not surprising that UK high streets are left with empty retail units. Instead of leaving the spaces unused, developers are turning to new ways to use the space.

Published 30th March 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
International Women & GEOLYTIX

To celebrate International Women's Day, I thought it would be a brilliant time to celebrate all the fantastic women in the GEOLYTIX team

Published 8th March 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
The Geography of Pokémon GO

With the nation locked away, its not surprising we turned to the world of AR and VR. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Pokémon, we delve into the phenomenon of Pokémon GO, and the impact on mobility and tourism alongside the growing presence of AR in the retail world.

Published 26th February 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Playing to win: Board Game Cafés and the Communal Meeting Space

The UK’s new indoor lifestyle has prompted a boom in the board game industry over the past year, building on past successes. Waiting to eat up this new demand are the country’s surviving board game cafés, provided we haven’t been too scared away from meeting up in person.

Published 22nd February 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
How to reinvent retail spaces for a more sustainable future?

The pandemic has accelerated the so-called Retail Armageddon and we are facing a dramatic oversupply of retail space in the UK. The repurposing of vacant or declining department stores, shopping centres and high streets will require creativity and imagination, but it will also require data.

Published 1st February 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
A 4-Month journey with Tesla: a change made on fuelling up

Tesla reached record sales last year, narrowly missing its half a million target. And with Tesla's entry-level Model 3 sedans now being manufactured at the Shanghai Gigafactory, Tesla is staying on top of the Chinese electric-car sales leader board.

Published 25th January 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
A bit more help than just the Milkman

2020 was a year we will never forget and it changed the way we socially interacted as a nation. The food industry was significantly impacted, which opened doors for an old British favourite...the milkman.

Published 18th January 2021 • Tags covid-19, team-thoughts
Consistency Across Borders

As retailers increasingly take a more regional or even global view of multi-channel strategy, the importance of defining and applying a consistent data and analytical approach across borders has also increased.

Published 3rd November 2020 • Tags team-thoughts, geodata
Historic England - High Street Heritage Action Zones

How can you use data to identify ‘similar’ locations? For retailers, looking for areas similar to those with high performing stores, this may be a simple enough task. Counts of surrounding population, competition and demographic data lend themselves well to similarity modelling.

Published 21st October 2020 • Tags our-team, team-thoughts, geodata
How can data help our tourist towns recover?

We’ve been pondering this question at Geolytix. Here in our local state of Victoria, Australia, our tourist towns have been hit by the double whammy of horrific bushfires followed by the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Published 10th August 2020 • Tags covid-19, geodata, team-thoughts
Retail Trend in Mainland China - 2019 Review & Outlook

Over the past three years, the top 10 consumer cities in mainland China witnessed the opening of 437 brand new shopping malls – an average increase of 43 malls in each city! And that hasn’t taken into account any reopening’s after upgrading or redevelopment.

Published 22nd July 2020 • Tags team-thoughts
Retail Network Planners – Your World Needs You.

Retail powers our modern world. The bars, the shops, the gyms, the post offices, the coffee shops, the estate agents, the bookies, the car showrooms, the petrol stations, the pharmacists. Everything.

Published 27th March 2020 • Tags covid-19, team-thoughts
Augmented Reality in the Physical Retail Space

The high street is in danger, and some stores are turning to futuristic technologies to help stave off the likes of Amazon and JD.com. But what exactly is possible, and where could it lead us?

Published 3rd February 2020 • Tags team-thoughts
When SOLOMO met ME and things got physical.

What on earth does SOLOMOME mean and why should you care?

Published 20th January 2020 • Tags team-thoughts
The Workplace Revolution

The workplace revolution has prompted a change in the office landscape. Co-working spaces have fast become the popular solution.

Published 26th November 2019 • Tags team-thoughts
India Retail Landscape… A decade on

How exciting to be back in India, and particularly Mumbai, after almost a decade away.

Published 30th October 2019 • Tags market-visits, team-thoughts
My Theory on How the Pie Chart was Invented? And what that tells us about innovation.

The pie chart was invented by a Bastille-storming, money-forging, dueller-libelling, spying, blundering, libertine and jailbird. But no one has figured out how and why.

Published 7th October 2019 • Tags team-thoughts
The Added Value of Banking Data

Across the numerous sectors and markets we support and operate in there is one common theme that keeps arising… and don’t worry it’s not Brexit.

Published 30th September 2019 • Tags geodata, team-thoughts
The Politics of Palm Oil

Having just landed back, I intended to write a blog about Malaysian retail from my recent trip. But some things are more important.

Published 19th September 2019 • Tags team-thoughts
How a fruit and veg supplier won my heart

I am a reluctant online shopper. I enjoy the actual shopping experience – choosing goods there and then and getting them immediately without expected delivery time.

Published 22nd July 2019 • Tags team-thoughts, market-visits
Ways to do your grocery in Shanghai

I am a native of Shanghai.

Published 18th July 2019 • Tags team-thoughts
One More Jigsaw Piece to Fit into Suning’s Smart Retail Empire

This time it is Carrefour China…

Published 5th July 2019 • Tags team-thoughts
From Shopping to Dining, Entertaining & Social Networking

The Role Transition of a Retail Venue in Chinese Daily Life

Published 20th March 2019 • Tags team-thoughts
Shanghai – A Flagship City

From a fishing village in the 11th Century, to the world’s busiest port today, Shanghai has long been synonymous with international trade and commerce.

Published 11th March 2019 • Tags team-thoughts, market-visits
Chinese Retailers Entering the UK

It’s been just over a year since I left China to join Geolytix, back in the UK.

Published 14th November 2018 • Tags team-thoughts
A mostly True Fairy Tale (any similarities to the 2004 Morrisons/Safeway merger are purely co-incidental)

Long long ago, in a land not very far away, the King of GeoConsultingInc was not happy, not happy at all.

Published 30th April 2018 • Tags team-thoughts
The changing face of Enfield. Ditching mainstream fashion for wine tasting, a pedicure and a Cuban night

I moved to Enfield 13 years ago, leaving Crouch End to take advantage of the lower house prices.

Published 24th July 2017 • Tags team-thoughts, market-visits
The Future of Oxford Street: Strength to Strength or Fighting for Survival?

London’s Oxford Street is one of the busiest shopping destinations in the world with a history stretching back well over 100 years.

Published 6th June 2017 • Tags team-thoughts, market-visits
We’re still telling our customers where to go – a year in the world of location planning and network strategy

Whilst for many 2016 was heavily tainted by Brexit and Trump, for Geolytix it has been a year of establishing our European and Global Strategy.

Published 30th March 2017 • Tags team-thoughts, our-team
Fresh Trader: Can a wholesaler succeed on the high street?

We welcome back Angela, our guest blogger, who shares her view on a different kind of grocery store…

Published 14th March 2017 • Tags market-visits, team-thoughts
Fishnets, Honeycombs and Footballs – Better spatial models with hexagonal grids.

I love the unique mathematical properties of hexagonal tiling for spatial analysis and the inherent possibility to create beautiful bi-variate hex maps.

Published 3rd March 2017 • Tags team-thoughts