PDI: Skupos

Years Available: July 2000 with ongoing updates.

What Is Included: Skupos collects daily, UPC-level transaction data from independent and small convenience store chains, offering unmatched coverage of the convenience store market. It includes four billion transactions annually across various categories, such as fuel, snacks, tobacco, beverages, and more. Varies by state, averaging 10% coverage of all conventional convenience stores.

Fields for each transaction include UPC, description, product category, subcategory, manufacturer, brand, product type, unit size, quantity, unit price, discount amount, total paid price, basket price, loyalty ID, payment type, credit card brand, and more.

Demographics cover geographic store names, states, zip codes, and more.

Types of files: Skupos data is available as Parquet files, organized by year.

• Researchers must register with the Kilts Center a detailed description of each project. Each paper a researcher anticipates writing should be its own project.
• Researchers must complete an annual update and disclose any changes to their project scope, coauthors, or funding sources during the course of their research.
• Researchers may only use the data for strictly academic research projects focused on important issues of wide and general interest.
• Use of the Skupos data for consulting purposes of any kind, including litigation support, is strictly prohibited.
• Data must be stored only on devices and computers owned by the subscribed institution or permissible Third Party Hosting Systems. The permissible Third Party Hosting Systems must have at least one of the following information security certifications: (a) federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); (b) SSAE16 SOC2; and/or (c) ISO27001 security certifications. No amount of data should ever be stored on a personal computer.
• Researchers will not disclose any personally identifiable information about any consumers, or details that would permit the re-identification of consumers.
• Projects with the primary purpose of evaluating Skupos’s data-collection approach or methodologies will not be approved.
• Researchers using Skupos data must take all necessary steps to protect retailer identities. This means they may not explicitly name retailers or include details that could allow readers to infer their identity.
• Research cannot be related to, or used for, anti-trust litigation or analysis, or any other legal or litigation-related issue.
• Researchers are prohibited from sharing and uploading provider data to any third party, including any Generative Artificial Intelligence tools (e.g., ChatGPT).
• Within 15 days of a subscription end date or deactivation, each researcher must provide all papers, complete a final report, and provide signed verification that she/he destroyed and purged all copies of the data during deactivation.
• Graduating PhD students who graduate and take a full-time, tenure-line job at an accredited academic institution may have the option to retain access to select Skupos data for up to five (5) years following graduation, in order to complete qualified projects. 
  To be eligible, PhD students must:
  Twelve (12) months in advance of graduation
  • have a research proposal(s) approved

  Six (6) months in advance of graduation

  • submit an extension request to the Kilts Center
  • have Kilts Center approve a working paper related to each approved project
  • begin working with their new academic institution to execute a Continuing Data Access Agreement

• Any distributed materials may include only limited excerpts of Skupos information—“limited excerpt” means such portion of the Skupos data that would not ordinarily substitute for a purchase of access to the Skupos datasets.

• At least 37 days prior to any public dissemination, including SSRN and submission to journals, researchers must submit all copies of proposed papers, reports, presentations, abstracts, dissertations, manuscripts, journal articles, and any other publication type to the Kilts Center.
  
  The Kilts center will conduct an initial compliance review within seven (7) days of receipt to assess adherence to the data usage and publication requirements of this Agreement. Licensee shall make any required revisions promptly. The thirty (30) day review and approval period by the applicable data provider shall commence only after Chicago Booth deems it is ready for submission to the entity.
  
  Important note: once PDI Technologies receive the paper, the provider has 30 days to review and decide whether they would like to be anonymous.
• Thirty-seven (37) days after providing Kilts Center a copy of a working paper, researchers must submit such papers to the Kilts Center at Chicago Booth Marketing Data Center Paper Series at Social Science Research Network (SSRN).
• Researchers must notify the Kilts Center of publications resulting from my work with the data, even after I have stopped using the data. I understand that this requires a 37-day review period.
• For presentations, working papers, journal articles, dissertations, and publications, researchers must include the following disclaimers:
  
  Researcher(s)’ own analyses calculated (or derived) based in part on data from PDI Technologies and provided by the Kilts Center for Marketing at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
  
  The conclusions drawn from the PDI Technologies data are those of the researcher(s) and do not reflect the views of PDI Technologies. PDI Technologies is not responsible for and had no role in analyzing or preparing the results reported herein.