Discussions

Hi Sir/Madam,
I hope this email finds you well. I appreciate it if you can share insights on three questions I have about branded POIs.

1. The Advan weekly pattern document (pages 2 on https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EmJaE31hO4SY2CUDlXpoCKevxZTc4U_f) says PLACEKEY is unique but not guaranteed to be persistent while guides on your website ( https://docs.deweydata.io/docs/advan-research-weekly-patterns) says PLACEKEY is unique and persistent. Could you clarify this? Will PLACEKEY be shared by different brands/stores? For example, a brand closes its store and another brand moves in, will a new PLACEKEY be assigned or the PLACEKEY will be reused? If DATE_RANGE_START is not within the period defined by OPENED_ON and CLOSED_ON, does it mean that the PLACEKEY is not a store any more corresponding to its previous brand?
2. Discussions and FAQs mention that Advan and Safegraph have added an enormous number of POIs during certain time periods. Does it mean that some existing stores were missed before somehow? Once a POI is included in the dataset, will it be continuously observed or it can be missed later?
3. I noticed on the web page ( https://app.deweydata.io/products/364d4770-9e54-45fc-9298-d669c0dff220/structure) two variables measuring observed device number. Does it mean that the variation of VISIT_COUNTS can be caused by increase and drop of coverage of devices? Or once a device is included in the dataset, it will always be observed. If the mobile device sampling rate varies a lot, I consider using NORMALIZED_VISITS_BY_STATE_SCALING instead of RAW_VISIT_COUNTS to isolate the variation in traffic visits caused by firms or stores' activities/events. Or I may standardize by myself by using NUMBER_DEVICES_PRIMARY_DAYTIME in Weekly Patterns - Home Panel Summary. I would really appreciate it if you can confirm or correct me.
   Thanks,