In looking at a number of NH Liquor store places I have noticed that there seems to be a number of different names used, as well as different categories. Should there be a place name harmonization for these?
The official name is: New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet (http://www.liquorandwineoutlets.com)
I’ve seen it as New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet, NH Liquor & Wine Outlet, NH Liquor and Wine Outlet, NH Liquor Store, etc.
For categories I’ve seen: Market, Convenience Store, Other
I’d lean towards yes with the primary name as “NH Liquor & Wine Outlet” and a category of “Shopping and Services”
I’m unsure how additional names should be used if needed.
I agree with “NH Liquor & Wine Outlet”, as it captures the official name, while making better use of screen space.
I think “New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet” as the alternate name would be a good idea to capture those users who spell it out (not sure if Waze is smart enough to make searches for “New Hampshire” return “NH” results. My simple test indicates not smart enough.
Thanks for raising the issue, Chronos74.
Just to confirm at this time we are using “Shopping and Services” as the category?
not “officially” but I think it’s the one that should be the category IMHO.
Also for alternate place names we should also include " NH State Liquor Store" which would include store in the searches and is how many including myself have searched for the stores. Especially since store isn’t in the category name.
Great points, nhmapguy.
I hope we get lots of discussion here. Harmonization is really needed for this.
In that case “New Hampshire State Liquor Store” should join the party.
Is New Hampshire State Liquor Store needed? Even if Waze didn’t get “New Hampshire” from NH it would sill get State Liquor Store, right?
Also, in New Hampshire is there a definition of “Market.” As was pointed out earlier many of these stores are currently labeled market. However, I didn’t know if there was a definition of Market - I couldn’t find one on the Wiki.
When I search in the app for “state liquor store” I seem to get all the ones around me.
Other states have “state liquor stores”. PA for one. Not that you’d get that search up there but as Moogonk posited earlier, the server might not be bright enuf to extrapolate New Hampshire from NH.
Great work Chronos74
I think we can easily do the “NH Liquor & Wine Outlet” as this matches the branding on their website and will catch the NH Liquor Outlet variation with the alt of New Hampshire Spelled our (however I am slightly skeptical someone is going to spell out the entire state name) if you were to write Liquor & Wine Outlet it would catch either NH or New Hampshire in Waze search results.
Category based off reviewing PNH for alcohol stores should be Shopping and Services
I think you are ready to submit here the PNH Request.
In terms of “State Liquor Store” looking at some of the images from their site I think maybe “NH State Liquor Outlet” it will catch those variations and match signage. But can be an alt as well if we want. I would prefer the Nh State Liquor Outlet over the State Liquor Store as that does match what the signage has and should catch these alts. I do not think we need to have too many alternative names though.
Thank you for weighing in, John.
To summarize:
Primary name: NH Liquor & Wine Outlet
Alternates: New Hampshire Liquor & Wine Outlet, NH State Liquor Outlet
Category: Shopping and Services
I believe that’s where the the consensus is right now.
Don’t forget the website when submitting the PNH form
I’ve submitted the PNH request. Thanks all! 
The reason I suggested NH State Liquor Store is because I think n more people search for either NH Liquor Store or State Liquor Store. I suspect if Waze staff shared queries you’d find this to be the case. Because the category doesn’t have the term store there is no good capture for Liquor Store or State Liquor Store. Since it’s an alternate it doesn’t display so it likely should best capture queries of people looking for it. I’d bet you find more people who use Liquor Store than Liquor Outlet to search. I agree with not having too many alternates. Hopefully we can find ones that best capture most queries as we won’t capture all of them.
I don’t know how relevant the data is, but google trends comparison of the two terms supports nhmapguy’s point.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?geo=US-NH&q=nh%20liquor%20store,nh%20liquor%20%26%20wine%20outlet
A couple things to further consider from the PNH perspective:
-We try to avoid too many alt names
-Search results, both instant results and extended, do utilize google algorithm logic
-Place linking will help capture the google places for these existing google places
We almost never utilize common nicknames or colloquial terms for a location unless the business specifically adopts them.
Most importantly we should look at how this works in the app, which is the ultimate test. If we find that State Liquor Store search is not giving the desired effect then maybe we should include it. But Im not convinced that what we have so far wont give the desired search results.
I asked Chronos74 to bring this topic here as an excellent exercise of thinking about how we add places in Waze. I appreciated ALL of the input and I hope to hear back on how this works out for people. Feel free to test it out and provide feedback for further optimization.