Old Country Store

Prepared By:

Southern Consults, Inc.:

Geographic Information Systems Division

David House

Heather McGee

Thomas Piper

Southern Consults, Inc.

Geographic Information Systems Division

Executive Summary

Southern Consults, Inc. has conducted various analyses to provide for the most profitable site concerning the establishment of Cracker Barrel Old General Store, Gadsden, Alabama. ESRI software was used in conjunction with criteria provided by Cracker Barrel and data provided by the Etowah County Planning Commission.

Southern Consults, Inc. has established the newest location of Cracker Barrel Old General Store just off of Interstate 59 located near Highway 77. The projected land parcel is approximately nine acres, visible from Interstate 59 and zoned for business. The projected parcel also has direct access to the major highway connecting with Interstate 59. GIS analysis was used to determine applicability of these criteria. The data was entered into the GIS system, and developed into themes. From the land parcel theme table, the acreage of each parcel located along the various major roadways is given. The adequate parcels were collected into a new theme named Parcels Greater than two and a half acres. This amount of land is adequate for the ten thousand square feet needed for building space, and the appropriate spaced required for one hundred and eighty-five parking spaces. The new theme was then cross referenced with another theme that provided the various zoning codes. Again, those parcels of land that met both sets of criteria were collected into another theme and named Possible Parcels. To determine the visibility of the parcel, a query was utilized. From the Possible Parcels theme, a query was used to determine the parcels that laid one hundred and fifty feet from the interstate. This amount of footage guaranteed Cracker Barrel visibility from the interstate.

Population, Per Capita Income and Traffic Counts were also taken into consideration. Population data provided by the Etowah County Planning Commission and entered to Southern Consults, Inc. GIS database. The population data provided for the amount of people with in a five-mile radius of the potential Cracker Barrel location. The population was determined by creating a buffer region using the GIS. The buffer region was also placed into a new theme, PopBuff. The population theme was placed under the roads theme and viewed. This gave an idea of the overall population of areas. The PopBuff theme was then placed directly over the population theme. This allowed for the direct determination of population in correspondence to the five mile buffer region. The same procedure was followed for the Per Capita Income data. The traffic counts were maintained in detail on hard copy. The proposed location receives daily Interstate traffic at 24,190 vehicles per day, and the secondary artery receives daily traffic at 15,000 vehicles per day. Although, these counts are lower than the criteria provided for by Cracker Barrel, this area has the potential and capacity of much higher traffic counts. The conclusions from the GIS analysis were as follows: The proposed Cracker Barrel located meets both the Population and Per Capita Income requirements, but failed to meet the exact traffic count requirements.

Cracker Barrel provided various other criteria that were

researched and determined by the GIS technicians. These criteria

were price and remodeling. The location of the proposed site is not

located next Gadsden’s mall; therefore, the projected property is less

expensive than that of the inner city. The Etowah County Planning

Commission also provided the data concerning the existing buildings

to Southern Consults, Inc. The existing buildings data was merged

into one theme, Buildings. From the Buildings theme, all parcels that

did not contain existing structures could be placed in a new theme, No

Buildings. The projected parcel does not contain any structures.

Again, the proposed Cracker Barrel location meets both the price and

remodeling criteria.