Retail Food Store Location and Characteristics Data   3

Background
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is issuing solicitation number 1232SA26Q0414 as a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for Retail Food Store Data. The USDA's mission includes supporting research and data analytics activities, particularly concerning food availability in low-income neighborhoods.

This contract aims to gather detailed information about retail food stores to assist in economic and policy research.

Work Details
The contractor is required to provide individual store-level data on food retailers’ characteristics and locations, including but not limited to:
- Store name
- Address
- Telephone number
- Geographic location (longitude-latitude, state, county, census tract)
- Market area identifiers
- Annual sales
- Selling area
- Full-time equivalent employees
- Number of checkout registers.

The data must be compatible across multiple years (2026-2030) and submitted annually by June 15th. Each submission must include documentation on data sources, collection procedures, estimation methods, data quality, and limitations. The required format for the data is Office Excel 2007 or later or as a text file; documentation should be provided in Microsoft Word format. A one-week turnaround is expected for third-party collaboration approvals.

Place of Performance
The specific geographic locations for performance are not explicitly stated but will involve collecting data from various retail food stores across the United States.

Incumbent Analysis (see Incumbents section for more detail)
This opportunity appears to have a confirmed incumbent based on prior contract 1232SA22P0007, awarded to Nielsen Consumer for “Retail Food Store Location and Characteristics Data” (TDLINX) on a sole source basis, valued at $1,779,872 for 11/10/21–06/30/26. The current RFQ’s required deliverables—store-level retailer characteristics and locations (e.g., addresses, geographic identifiers, market area identifiers) along with sales and store operational metrics—are consistent with a continuation of the same retail food store data collection and annual submission approach across multiple years.