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    [OC]Mapping America’s Most Desolate Areas by Distance from Costco and Sam’s Club
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    [OC]Mapping America’s Most Desolate Areas by Distance from Costco and Sam’s Club


    I created a heatmap showing how far every point in the continental US is from the nearest Costco or Sam’s Club location. Instead of population density, this measures geographic desolation based on access to these wholesale stores. The color scale runs from 0 to 220 miles, with red areas representing the most isolated regions and green areas indicating close proximity.

    Data sources: Costco locations from Kaggle, Sam’s Club geocoded via OpenStreetMap. Visualization built with Python, Cartopy, and Matplotlib.

    Posted by JiveTurkey90

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    25 Comments

    1. braumbles on

      That SLC Costco is the biggest I’ve ever been to. It was like 2.5x the size of a normal Costco.

    2. Wyrmillion on

      I bought my first Costco membership a month ago, the Costco is 2 miles away, I’ve still never been -_-

    3. No-Mushroom5934 on

      Odd how there’s that little region in the middle that doesn’t have a Costco near it

    6. TheFallenGoneCrazy on

      Can you do this for the whole of North America? And just a Walmart one? I think I’ve heard 90% of Americans live 10 miles away from a Walmart

    7. JiveTurkey90 on

      It’s hard explaining to people how unpopulated and isolated the area I grew up in is. I used to say you have to drive an hour just to get to a Walmart. But I think I found a better way to show it. I made this map that measures how far you are from the nearest Costco or Sam’s Club. I grew in the red, but to my surprise, not the deep red.

      AMA From the Red

    9. KieferSutherland on

      I’m not sure this is accurate. This seems to show a Costco on the panhandle near Panama City where there isn’t one. 

      Here are the Costco’s https://imgur.com/a/oKRuqNO

      Oh or Sam’s club. Doh

      Could you do one with just Costco? 

      /u/JiveTurkey90

    10. coffeeismydoc on

      I used to live in a red area. Watertown South Dakota.

      Red as in conservative or red on this map? Yes.

    12. SGwithADD on

      The map is incorrect for upstate NY – it’s missing Sam’s Clubs in Elmira, Binghamton, Albany, and Watertown

    14. miguelandre on

      God I hate that protection for the US. Also a super easy map to make, and make look a lot better.

    15. Sub-Dominance on

      It’s interesting being able to visualize the sphere of influence around my local Sam’s Club

    16. MidwestAbe on

      You can see the drive I made!

      Weeks back I left Chardon, NE and drove to Omaha. I passed 0 Walmarts over about 400 miles. 1st one was in Freemont, NE.

      It was a stark reminder that a few folks live a very different life than most.

      Hell from Rapid City, SD to Omaha I passed only the one in Chardon. That’s 500 miles.

    17. Helios4242 on

      I aint no CEO but what I see is a bunch of oceanic business opportunities.

    18. powerlesshero111 on

      The fun yellow void in upstate NY is Albany. I lived there. It sucked because there was no Costco.

    19. Lokarin on

      Since I’m not in the US I don’t know how much driving distance each point on the grid is.

      Using Wyoming as an example, it looks like there are 2 Costcos or Sam Clubs (or 2 combinations of Costco+Sam Club), one at approximately Casper and one at approximately Cheyenne.

      Using the Casper (ish) location occupying about 1/3 of Wyoming horizonally… are there really people driving 200+ miles to get to a Costco?

    23. mallclerks on

      I used to live 5 minutes from Costco. Now I live 45 minutes. It’s hell.

      Couldn’t imagine being in the red death zones.