RMA geographies feature data from a single retailer chain. Other Circana geographies (including CRMAs) sample data from a blend of retailers. Use the links in this article to understand which retailers are being sampled.
Unless a Circana geography has "RMA" in its name, the geography's data is generated by sampling a group of chains that share data with Circana and use that sample to project dollars, volume, and distribution for the entire market, state, or region. How can we see which retailers are being sampled for one of these geographies?
Circana's Retailer Share file shows us the portion of the dollar sales (share) that each existing retailer in a given market is contributing to the sum of grocery dollar sales for that entire market, regardless of whether the retailer is reporting their data to Circana or not. For instance, although Whole Foods doesn't share their data with Circana, it's listed simply because it's a chain that holds a large dollar share in many markets. Using the Retailer Share file, filter Column J to find the retailer share percentages for a market, state, region, or CRMA such as 'Atlanta', 'Oregon', 'Northeast', or 'Publix Corp-CRMA'.
Then, use Circana’s Multi Outlet Universe guide to cross-reference, because it shows us which retailers are actually sharing their data with Circana. This guide places a double asterisk (**) next to the names of the retailers that share POS scan data with Circana and are used in the sample for projected geographies. Retailers listed in the file without double asterisks don't share any point-of-sale data with Circana and are chains which Circana only “projects for”, by using sampled data from chains that do.
Note that convenience and liquor retailers are not listed in the Retailer Share File. Use this guide to see which Liquor retailers are being sampled for non-RMA Liquor geographies like 'Colorado - Liquor'. Use this hierarchy file to see which large liquor chains are being included in 'RMA' Liquor geographies like 'Sum of Florida-RMA - Liquor'. Find out more about the retailer composition of convenience geographies here.