Annual Retail Trade Survey & Retail Store Survey Firm-Level Data

Question
I’m working with a researcher interested in the Annual Retail Trade Survey (2447) –formerly the Annual Retail Store Survey (2446) & the Annual Survey of Manufactures and Logging (ASML) –formerly the Annual Survey of Manufacturing and Logging Industries (ASML) formerly the Annual Survey of Manufactures.

Would firm level data or microdata be available by custom tab?

Answer
Firm level data would not be available as a custom tab, as:

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any data that would divulge information obtained under the Statistics Act that relates to any identifiable person, business or organization.

Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. As such, you will find tables that are available for the ARSS here:

Summary tables
Publications
Analysts and researchers
CANSIM

The list of chain is the only detailed information available (because we have waivers with the companies asking for their permission to divulge this information), no other data at firm level is available.

Here is what she is referring to
2014 Annual Retail Trade Survey – Partial List of Retail Chain Stores
http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb-bmdi/document/2447_D5_T9_V12-eng.htm

Shopping Mall Data

Question

A researcher here at the U of S is looking for the number of shopping centres/malls in each province, preferably at the level of CSD or CMA. I know the Annual Retail Store Survey lets users extract the number of stores by individual category at the provincial level, but I haven't found a product focused on malls. I'm sure that retail/trade associations keep such data, but I thought I'd see if StatsCan does too.

Answer

I consulted the division that manages our retail store surveys and they unfortunately do not have data on the number of shopping malls by province.

I also consulted the division that manages our Business Register and they provided the following information: "Unfortunately, we are unable to provide the number of shopping centres or malls as we only maintain counts of business locations, establishments or enterprises, and we do not keep track of whether a particular retail store or service belongs to a mall. The Business Register is able to provide counts of business locations for NAICS 531120 at either the CSD or CMA level. (...) However, I would like to point out that this NAICS is not exclusive to malls or shopping centres and also includes other commercial and industrial buildings (ex. office buildings, meeting halls, reception hall, etc). Therefore, the counts would also reflect these types of businesses."

For your reference, a description of NAICS 531120, Lessors of Non-Residential Buildings (except Mini-Warehouses), is available at: http://stds.statcan.gc.ca/naics-scian/2007/cs-rc-eng.asp?criteria=531120&keyword=shopping&table=2&code_level=

Canadian Business Patterns (available through the DLI - http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dli-ild/data-donnees/ftp/cbp-sic-eng.htm) contains Business Register data and could provide counts of business locations for NAICS code 531120 (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/concepts/industry-industrie-eng.htm) at the CMA level if your researcher decides that this would be of interest. Similar Business Register data at the CSD level would be available as a custom extraction (approximate cost of $760). I would be happy to refer you to an Account-Executive who can provide an official quote if your researcher wishes to look into this type of product.

I hope that this information is helpful. Should you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to let me know.