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Alan Grant

This is getting absurd, this evening I found 5 previously unmapped hairdressers / barbers / beauty salons in about 200m of street.

This is my life now, walking very slowly with Everydoor open on my mobile, peering up at the shop signs for hairdressers. I'm struggling to remember why I ever thought "map every POI in my barrio" was a good idea.

8 comments
Alan Grant

Some hard numbers to back up my growing impression that "there are a lot of hairdressers around here".

There are now 180 shops mapped in my area of interest (defined simply as objects with a shop tag in OSM). Of those, 38 are hairdressers, barbers, or beauty salons - about 21%.

To save you all rushing off to look at Taginfo: the worldwide equivalent is a little under 8%.

(Green markers are hairdressers, grey markers are all other types of shop).

#OpenStreetMap

Map of shops in a city neighbourhoods, distinguishing between hairdressers and all other types of shop. Hairdressers account for about 1 in 5 of the shops mapped.
vespucci

@alan we have country wide ~10% including beauty studios so 30 % doesn't seem off in urban environments and matches my experience locally (lots are single proprietor operations which don't scale really relatively to other shops etc).

Alan Grant

@vespucci_editor Yes I think almost all in my sample are sole traders too, and squeezed into physically very small premises in many cases.

One thing I've also realised, and that is especially relevant to hairdressers, is that there are far more businesses on small side streets than I used to think. It's partly because I tend to pass by at night when all shops on a side street may be shuttered, whereas shops on main thoroughfares are more likely to be open.

SK53

@alan @vespucci_editor Also back in 2018 mapping of hairdressers in the UK 🇬🇧 was, if anything accelerating: sk53-osm.blogspot.com/2018/07/. Second only to convenience stores then, but fast catching up now (26k vs. 30k).

#OpenStreetMap #RetailMapping #hairdressers #AccumulationCurves.

Graphs showing number of shops mapped over time on OpenStreetMap in the UK to mid-2018. The graphs represent the most popular shop=* values at this time.
SK53

@alan Looks like we only have ~50% mapped in the UK 🇬🇧. Rule of thumb from Nottingham figures suggest 1 hairdresser per thousand people, which gives an estimate of roughly 60k (assuming under 5s don't use them), which is close to figures here nhbf.co.uk/documents/industry-

SK53 replied to SK53

@alan the other approach is bavk-of-the-envelope. If we assume 60 million customers getting hair done 4 times a year and taking 20 minutes, we get 80 million person hours or roughly 50,000 FTEs. Obviously very conservative values, but given most salons are sole traders it gives a reasonable approximation.

I'm now going to have to get my hair cut so I can interrogate my hairdresser about her customer mix.

SK53 replied to SK53

In summary: ways to estimate country totals for POIs:

* Official statistics (e.g. VAT registered businesses)
* Govt #OpenData (e.g., UK Food Hygiene)
* Trade bodies & trade journals
* Extrapolation from well-mapped places on #OpenStreetMap
* Ball park estimates from first principles with a bit of introspection.

MT @alan

In summary: ways to estimate country totals for POIs:

* Official statistics (e.g. VAT registered businesses)
* Govt #OpenData (e.g., UK Food Hygiene)
* Trade bodies & trade journals
* Extrapolation from well-mapped places on #OpenStreetMap
* Ball park estimates from first principles with a bit of introspection.

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