Grocery and/or Food Store Searching

batman53

Using a GO 520 and am terribly disappointed with search results (or lack thereof) for grocery stores. When we travel, we often stay at lodging equipped with kitchens . Or, we buy a cooler and stock with food for light meals such as lunches. So, one of our first stops when we arrive at a travel destination is a grocery store
It astounds me that there are no categories for food or grocery stores. I would bet that this category of POI's might be one of the most important for travelers. This shortcoming has been discussed in previous years but still no improvement.
The solution is to search for a store name. Kroger is the largest food retailer in the U.S. and I live in Ohio just 60 miles from the Kroger headquarters. We have a store five miles from my home that will NOT even show in a search for Kroger. This store has been in its current location for over twenty years!
The only category even close to a grocery or food store is "Shop" . If I search near me under this category the first ten hits are (in order) a canoe livery, a residence, a manufacturer of machinery, a rep who sells insurance and investments, a company that sells small chicken coops, a company that sells window blinds, a gun shop, a nursery (plants and flowers) and an insurance office.. None of these are what I would classify as a store where you could buy various food or household products.
Please do something about this TomTom!

YamFazMan

Hi
@batman53

You were nearly there with... Shop

Search screen List Mode

Search screen Map Mode


To show the built-in POI's for Kroger Shops as a List
Work your way down to option (1)
To show the built-in POI's for Kroger Shops on the map
Work your way down to option (2)

From the main screen
Tap the 4Dot (.... Menu) (Screen Bottom left)
Tap the Search Icon
Type Shop (Or as much of the word that’s required for the category to appear at the top of the right-hand column)
Tap the offered "Shop" (top of the right-hand column)
Note..... The initial offering (Right-hand column) will be local to your search

The Main search area turns blue and "Shop" is offered with a flashing cursor
Continue typing the Name of the required Shop i.e... Kroger, (Or type as much of the word that's required for the category to appear at the top of the right-hand column
After tapping the Keyboard Icon (Screen bottom right) to clear the on-screen Keyboard
There is a now dual Icon (screen bottom right) with Three Lines and Two circles
(1)..... Tap the three Lines Icon (bottom right screen) and a list will appear of the Kroger Shops in distance order
(2)...... Tap the Two circle Icon for the Kroger Shops POI's to appear on the screen (Pinch zoom for detail)
There is also a Keyboard Icon (screen bottom right) to return to the search window from the options (1) and (2)

Note... You can tap on the Flag Icon screen top right to change/modify the search parameters
____________________________

GO 520 User guide... Full List of Searchable POI Categories Page 49
http://download.tomtom.com/open/manuals/gox20x/index.htm
_____________________________

From Navcore ver 17.1 it possible to view 3RD party POI's on the Driving view[/b]
For the update details Ver 17.1... See

https://discussions.tomtom.com/en/discussion/1021782/new-update-17-1-available-now/p1

ATB YFM

batman53

I appreciate your effort to help me but your suggestion to use Shop then Kroger is worse than just searching Kroger. And, neither of the approaches works well.

There are seven Kroger stores within fifteen miles of my home ranging in distance from 5.2 miles to 14.2 miles. These locations were identified using Google Map and I know everyone of those seven locations to be correct as I have driven by all of them on numerous occasions.

Let's assume that the closest one is location one and the farthest one is location seven. When I search ("Near Me") on my Go 520 using just Kroger, it only finds number two and number seven. When I search using your approach, it only finds number seven and omits the six stores that are closer, two of which are less than six miles away!
Besides that, the first Kroger listed in both search techniques is a community water park that Kroger happened to buy the naming rights for. In other words, it is not even a store.

In summary, the value of my Go 520 in finding a grocery store EVEN when I know the name of the store is terrible!. If I am away from home where I don't know the names for any of the grocery stores it is virtually useless.
Bottom line is my ability to conduct searches is not the problem. Rather, the problem is with the data and search logic used by TomTom.

It has been suggested that this shortcoming is somewhat unique to the U.S. I beg to differ. I am traveling to Ireland in a couple of weeks and tried to do some pre-planning using my TomTom. I encountered the same problem searching Ireland for food stores as I do searching here in the U.S.

YamFazMan

Hi
@batman53

Acording to Wikipedia... As of March 2019, Kroger operates, either directly or through its subsidiaries, 2,764 supermarkets and multi-department stores
Source Here... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kroger
_______________________________

I downloaded the Kroger POI Category from the POI Factory
Source Here... http://www.poi-factory.com/
The file contains 2,813 individual POI locations

If you load the Kroger POI Category into a POI Editor
The Kroger group appear in many cases to have retained their original names ???
Example....
Kroger
CITYMARKET
KING SOOPERS MARKETPLACE
HARRIS TEETER
FRED MEYER
FOOD 4 LESS
MARIANO&apos
PAYLESS SUPERMARKET
JAY C
RULER
DILLONS
QFC
PICK&apos N SAVE
FRY&apos S
SMITH&apos S
RALPHS
FOODS CO
GERBES

I live in the UK, not the States, but could the fact that many shops in the Kroger group appear to have retained their original names, be the reason for the anomalies when searching for shops in the Kroger group ???

ATB YFM

batman53

The various names under the Kroger umbrella does not explain the anomalies.

Over the years, Kroger has acquired regional retailers in other parts of the U.S. For example, Fred Meyer, which was acquired by Kroger in 1999, operates in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska. None of the store names you mentioned would be found in Ohio where I am located. In fact, most people in Ohio would not even recognize those names and, if they did recognize the name, they would likely not know that it is under the Kroger umbrella. To put it another way, ANY Ohio store under the Kroger umbrella of stores will have a big Kroger sign over the door and ONLY a Kroger sign. If you go into a Fred Meyer in Oregon, you will NOT see a Kroger sign but you might see Kroger products on the shelf.

BEBrady

The problem is that certain things in the TomTom are not category searches at all, but keyword searches in the title. Grocery and Pharmacy are two critical categories that need to be addressed. (In fact, when I complained about this two years ago, I was told that they were working on it, but they are very, very slow, those TomTom people.)

When you type "pharmacy" into POI search (in the US) you only get pharmacies with the word "pharmacy" in the business name. Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, grocery-store-based pharmacies, and other large chain pharmacies are not among the results. Same with grocery stores. I have nothing against mon and pop "grocer" stores, but when I'm stocking up the fridge, I need a Kroger, Winn-Dixie, Publix, Safeway, Lucky, Thriftway, IGA, Piggly Wiggly... and I can't be expected to know which of these chains is in every town I visit and search them all individually by name.

Any one of us could go through a spreadsheet and label businesses in these categories in about 30 minutes. Why TomTom can't is beyond me.