mempbreorfile
The business of
being best
Pickacity—chancesarethis
Costco member has ranked it
San Luis Obispo ranks
in the top 10 cities
with Costco locations,
according to Bert
Sperling (see below).
By Steve Fisher
YOUSEEthemeverywhere,poppingupin
newspapers and magazines and on Web sites,
proclaiming the best cities in which to live, be
single, get the best health care, retire, be green,
etc. They are the “best places” lists, helping
many to make decisions on where to live,
work, travel and play.
Some come from editorial
staffs, but many come from one
company that specializes in finding “the best.” You might picture a
huge think tank with thousands of
researchers spanning and scanning
the globe, but Sperling’s BestPlaces
lists come from a handful of
researchers, led by Costco member
Bert Sperling.
Sperling’s efforts began around
20 years ago. “I saw a study saying
Pittsburgh was the best place to live,” he recalls.
“I thought Pittsburgh was a pretty good place,
but it may not be the best place for everyone.”
He developed a software program called
Places, U.S.A. that allowed people to enter
personal preferences to find the best place to
live for their tastes.
Then, “one of our lists showed up on the
front page of USA Today,” recalls Sperling.
“Money magazine saw it and asked for my
help to do its own piece. We’ve been helping
ever since.”
The software evolved into a Web site, www.
bestplaces.net, which features a series of interactive pages for users to search for their best place
to live. In addition, Sperling’s BestPlaces produces books for John Wiley & Sons, studies for
publications, corporate studies and licensed
content for real estate sites.
The output is huge for Sperling and his
small team. Five of them, including Sperling’s
wife, Gretchen, perform data collection, processing and analysis; Web site development
and design; and communication with site
members. Sperling himself works with the
media and business partners, and oversees
the analysis. “People often express surprise at
the amount of work accomplished by such a
small team,” he says. “Our response: In any
organization it”s usually only four or five people who do all the work anyway.”
For a typical study, team Sperling starts by
focusing on and identifying the subject, such
as “The Most Liveable Costco Cities.”
“Sometimes narrower is better because it’s
more understandable and direct,”
says Sperling. “We then decide on
the universe of the places we’ll be
ranking, often using the geography
of ‘metro areas,’ which more closely
match how we live and work in a
larger community.”
Experts in that particular subject are consulted and published
works that discuss the issue are carefully culled and scrutinized. Much
data comes from the government,
specifically the U.S. Census Bureau,
as well as other sources, such as the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Environmental Protection Agency, the Centers
for Disease Control, National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, National Center
for Education Statistics and various housing
groups. Sperling adds, “To a lesser extent, we
go to state agencies for specific data, and
license content from private organizations
and data providers.
“About 85 percent is objective, 15 percent
subjective,” claims Sperling. “We use our mathematical models to rank the places we study,
but we continually test our results with what
we’ve been hearing from residents in different parts of the country and what we read
about.”
Toward that end, the Web site allows
individuals to enter testimonials about their
towns and neighborhoods, as well as input
about the site.
“Whenever I want to know about a city
area, whether for business or pleasure, I go to
your site,” writes Janice Williams. “I actually
have used the info on this site to purchase
real estate in other parts of the country,” adds
Bill Gowan.
As Sperling points out, “They’re the ultimate experts.” C
The most liveable
Costco cities
DAVID E. GAR TH PHOTOGRAPHY
BERT SPERLING, along with partner
Peter Sander, put together a list for The
Connection of the best U.S. places to
live, work and play that have nearby
Costco locations. They evaluated more
than 50 categories, including housing,
economy, climate, crime, education,
recreation, arts and culture, and health.
Sperling says, “We strove to balance
quality of life and affordability.”
Bert Sperling
1. Provo/Orem, UT
2. Bellingham, WA
3. Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA
4. Durham, NC
5. Atlanta, GA
6. Manchester/Nashua, NH
7. Boise/Nampa, ID
8. San Luis Obispo, CA
9. Northampton, MA
10. Indianapolis/Carmel, IN
member
profile
Name: Sperling’s BestPlaces
Owner: Bert Sperling
Member at: Clackamas, Oregon
Employees: Five
Products/services: Analyzing data
about people and places for major
publications, corporate studies and
Web-based tools.
Contact at: P.O. Box 82937
Portland, OR 97282
(503) 777-1636;
www.bestplaces.net
Comments about Costco: “It occurs to
me that Costco is a lot like Sperling’s
BestPlaces, in that we both do a great
deal of research to select the very best
for our members and customers.”
—Bert Sperling
