Do Google Reviews indicate a store's performance??

[FrankMoore99]

I am wondering if Google Reviews are an indicator of how a store is performing?? Does the Best Buy in Park City having only 735 reviews versus the average store having about 2,000 reviews indicate that store's underperformance. Or OfficeMax in Tupelo, Mississippi only having 126 reviews despite being the only major office supply store in the area for a long ways, while an OfficeMax in Roosevelt St in Philadelphia has 591 reviews even though it is near a Staples and Office Depot/Max only operates 2 stores in the Philadelphia market, the other one in Fairless Hills, and are the farthest north stores on the I-95 corridor. And it isn't in the wealthiest area.
Or do Google reviews mean anything in profitability? If they don't, what is an indicator of a store's profitability, for quick reference?? Not having to drive to every store. Are store hours?? Or if they received a remodel or not? What are your thoughts?

[ClownLoach]

I am wondering if Google Reviews are an indicator of how a store is performing?? Does the Best Buy in Park City having only 735 reviews versus the average store having about 2,000 reviews indicate that store's underperformance. Or OfficeMax in Tupelo, Mississippi only having 126 reviews despite being the only major office supply store in the area for a long ways, while an OfficeMax in Roosevelt St in Philadelphia has 591 reviews even though it is near a Staples and Office Depot/Max only operates 2 stores in the Philadelphia market, the other one in Fairless Hills, and are the farthest north stores on the I-95 corridor. And it isn't in the wealthiest area.
Or do Google reviews mean anything in profitability? If they don't, what is an indicator of a store's profitability, for quick reference?? Not having to drive to every store. Are store hours?? Or if they received a remodel or not? What are your thoughts?

Not one bit.
All the review sites are easily manipulated.
In addition demographics are a major issue, and regionality as well. Language barriers also play a major role.

Great example is the infamous Winchester Rite Aid that is now closed. Practically perfect 5 Star reviews and tons of them. If you read the reviews they were usually all fluff. "Susie was nice, I like Rite Aid." Then you'd find a few real reviews that explained in detail the poor selection and apparently very bad pharmacy service. Why so many reviews, and perfect 5 Stars? Because they had a sign where if you showed them that you posted a 5 Star review on Yelp, Google, or some other review site I forgot then they would hand you a free one scoop Thrifty Ice Cream cone! So of course they had a crap load of reviews for the deadest drugstore ever.

Restaurants are another example, there were several check in services and wait list services Yelp acquired. Now when you aren't a Yelp member but you use the wait list tablet inside the restaurant you're sent links to sign up, emailed to review the place and so on. Restaurants that switch to Yelp check in can be expected to see hundreds more reviews per month than without the system.

And finally you have the infamous social media influencers and "PR services." These scam companies use overseas call center type places and AI to pack review sites with fake reviews... Not just good ones for the restaurant or store that paid, but also bad ones for their primary competition. Benihana opened a new restaurant locally and magically it opened its doors to the public with weeks of 1 star reviews that were pretty much two sentences, food was bad, cold, stale, service was rude, and XXX restaurant down the street is so much better! Obviously the restaurant down the street which I won't name hired these services to review bomb the Benihana, I saw several 1 star reviews so comically stupid that clearly they had never been to the restaurant (comments about food that they don't serve, dated worn out interior which of course made no sense as it was completely new, and a salad bar which doesn't exist) and I reported them to Yelp, they were removed the next day. But the damage was done and the restaurant is fighting their way back from a 2 star rating. By the way I ate there and the service and food was impeccable, and at least two supervisors and a Manager checked in to make sure everything was to my liking as they were obviously trying to combat the review bombing by the restaurant who I won't name a block away.

Back to stores, once again it's all demographics. My stores in older demographic areas had far fewer reviews than other stores, hundreds/thousands fewer. My store with the most reviews was my absolute lowest volume store which I kept begging regional management to close. It did half the business of the next closest store, had to run on a skeleton crew to break even, and was two miles from a California State University campus so I would get as many as ten reviews a day between Yelp and Google. If you went by review count you would expect it to be my busiest store. The 2nd closest store on the same highway was the busiest in the county and had a quarter of the reviews. Finally I had one store in a 70 year old building that had crumbling plaster ceilings, bad air conditioning, constant sewer problems that would cause literal bubbles of foul gas to come up the drains, and terrible parking. I moved it to a spectacular, beautiful new building with every amenity, plentiful parking, roomy wide aisles and absolutely beautiful merchandising. I have a look book I made of this store to represent my standards that I take with me to job interviews. If I could share that chain and the pictures on this site it would be universally agreed upon that was the best store anyone had ever seen from that chain (confidentiality agreements suck). The old crap store had better review scores than the new one. Every fourth review is bitching about the fact that the new store is not as close to their house as the old one, as if I was supposed to replace the one store with a fleet of locations custom tailored to the unique geographic location of every known customer? Of course some customers will be further from the new store... And I moved it to the center of the population area which means that far more customers it's now closer for them which is reflected in increased sales. But I get fewer, and worse review scores with a store that addressed literally every shortcoming of the old, dark, smelly, stuffy store with no parking.

Reviews don't mean jack.

And I appreciate your fascination with what can be determined from the outside to understand the performance of a store.

Although it can be assumed that the newness of the store, remodel status, and so forth might be indicators of store performance, they can be very misleading. As discussed for example Walmart tends to only choose underperforming and negative comp stores for remodels. Sometimes they will do a full remodel as the "last resort" instead of a reward for performance, and you see the store close a year later. Some chains just don't believe in remodels and have the same basic designs forever like Costco.

But one of the largest factors you need to recognize is the bizarre commercial real estate market and construction market in recent years. Some areas like SoCal are now clogged with old, worn out stores because they are in long term leases that are a fraction of the cost of a new store. I had several stores that were so bad I felt they were literally unsafe due to poor logistics, lack of ADA compliance, and other factors but they were amongst the most profitable in the chain. Now you could say "they need to do the right thing, profits be damned" and I would agree with you. Problem is construction to fix the issues was not possible, the centers needed to be demolished, and any new location in the area would be so expensive that they literally could not break even unless sales doubled which would just not happen. They were able to remodel the stores from a cosmetic perspective and improve lighting, flooring and decor but the buildings were still small and cramped and unpleasant so you might think they were low profit and performance... They were top ten in the company superstars.

You just can't tell.

[storewanderer]

I am wondering if Google Reviews are an indicator of how a store is performing?? Does the Best Buy in Park City having only 735 reviews versus the average store having about 2,000 reviews indicate that store's underperformance. Or OfficeMax in Tupelo, Mississippi only having 126 reviews despite being the only major office supply store in the area for a long ways, while an OfficeMax in Roosevelt St in Philadelphia has 591 reviews even though it is near a Staples and Office Depot/Max only operates 2 stores in the Philadelphia market, the other one in Fairless Hills, and are the farthest north stores on the I-95 corridor. And it isn't in the wealthiest area.
Or do Google reviews mean anything in profitability? If they don't, what is an indicator of a store's profitability, for quick reference?? Not having to drive to every store. Are store hours?? Or if they received a remodel or not? What are your thoughts?

I've been surprised by this and I guess what I'd say is if you see a store in an obviously busy area with few reviews it may mean something. But there are some areas, where the people just don't leave many reviews, for whatever reasons. Overall I don't think it means much. I don't use it as an indicator of performance.

[ClownLoach]

I am wondering if Google Reviews are an indicator of how a store is performing?? Does the Best Buy in Park City having only 735 reviews versus the average store having about 2,000 reviews indicate that store's underperformance. Or OfficeMax in Tupelo, Mississippi only having 126 reviews despite being the only major office supply store in the area for a long ways, while an OfficeMax in Roosevelt St in Philadelphia has 591 reviews even though it is near a Staples and Office Depot/Max only operates 2 stores in the Philadelphia market, the other one in Fairless Hills, and are the farthest north stores on the I-95 corridor. And it isn't in the wealthiest area.
Or do Google reviews mean anything in profitability? If they don't, what is an indicator of a store's profitability, for quick reference?? Not having to drive to every store. Are store hours?? Or if they received a remodel or not? What are your thoughts?

I've been surprised by this and I guess what I'd say is if you see a store in an obviously busy area with few reviews it may mean something. But there are some areas, where the people just don't leave many reviews, for whatever reasons. Overall I don't think it means much. I don't use it as an indicator of performance.

Also, the smaller the area the store is in, the less likely that you can infer anything about volume of the store from reviews. Stores in major metropolitan areas almost universally have far more reviews than suburbs and rural areas. But as can be seen in many metro areas where closed and boarded up storefronts are everywhere, it's pretty obvious that those stores weren't always top performers. I live ten miles from what is apparently a top 5 Target location, and the #1 SuperTarget store in the chain. I learned it was that great of a performer after it was closed a couple of months when someone set a fire to distract from their shoplifting attempt. It's in a "okay" suburb with a population that still hasn't crossed 100K. You would expect a store like the large new Hollywood area Target that sat for a decade or so before finally being completed to be a higher performer but it isn't. That Hollywood store would have been the first urban SuperTarget if construction hadn't been stopped for over a decade, I do wonder if it had been finished with the Super format if that would have changed the trajectory for the entire "Super" program chain wide as they had made the mistake of placing nearly all in suburbs or even rural areas then wondered why they didn't perform.