Saying it With Spatial Data: Wal-Mart Growth

A researcher at the University of Minnesota has published a WMV animation of the openings of new Wal-Mart stores from 1962 through 2004. The images are simple maps of Wal-Mart locations from a working paper -- The Diffusion of Wal-Mart and Economies of Density (PDF) -- prepared under a grant from the NSF.

I note it as a good example of the effectiveness of simple spatial data in expressing simple concepts. The study itself is a much more in-depth economic treatment of the reasons why Wal-Mart's spread pattern is what it is.