Siting a new bubble tea shop in Woodlands Singapore

Lab Assignment #2 for my high school GIS course

A client requests an identification of a feasible location for his start-up beverage outlet in northern Singapore. The outlet specializes in bubble tea, and it was preferred that the location would take advantage of larger human traffic near major transportation routes.

Summary of Considerations

Woodlands was chosen primarily due to the high commuter traffic across the Causeway between Singapore and Malaysia. The resident population would also play a large factor in locational attractiveness, specifically the younger age groups of 10 to 25 years. Other important nodes therefore include schools and malls which are heavily frequented by these age groups, as well as transportation hubs such as MRT stations, major expressways and roads. Also the locations of other bubble tea franchises should also be avoided in order to minimize competition.

Spatial Analysis

The map below depicts the expressways and roads in the Woodlands Planning Zone.

The following maps show the population dataof the Woodlands planning area, delimited by subzone. The first describe the general population density, and the second the population density of the target age group (10 to 25 years).

Woodlands East has the highest population by far, with its 94,360 residents being nearly thrice that of the next highest subzone, Midview. This is consistent with the more specific map of the youth population. With this distribution in mind, only the 3 subzones with substantial youth population (Woodlands East, Midview and Woodgrove) will be considered from here onwards.

The next major factor is human traffic, as identified by the client’s preference. With regards to the location of schools, Woodlands East features a total 9 primary and secondary schools, which is remarkably more than any other subzone. For malls, Midview has 2 major ones which the other two lack, but there might be however smaller scale nodes that feature high potential consumer traffic within the subzone, such as food centres.

The last factor is the location of other café and bubble tea outlets in the area (see map below). Most are clustered around the regional centre, and other parts of Woodlands are mostly “untapped”. It is possible, however, to locate near the regional centre as the local population may associate it as a location where they can easily find bubble tea shops. However, it seems saturated with competition, which is not good for a start-up.

Conclusion

Bearing in mind the client’s preference to tap on major transportation nodes, Admiralty MRT was chosen to be the most feasible location for the start-up. Woodlands East has an extraordinarily large local population, and it is possible that the traffic from schools and the residences are comparable to that of the regional centre and Marsiling MRT.