1 — U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS • bls.gov

CPI Outlet Frame Survey 

Redesign

Madeleine Saxton

Division of Consumer Prices and Price Indexes

FedCASIC

April 18, 2018
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Transitioning Outlet Collection

 Issues with current surveys

 Temporary solutions

 Replacement options

 Replacement selection

Overcoming hurdles

Outlet collection design
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The Telephone Point of Purchase Survey

 Telephone survey conducted by Census for BLS

 The last random digit dialed CATI survey

 Rotating panel survey with 184 categories in 16 

questionnaires

 Collects where urban consumers spend money 

and how much they spend

 Serves as the main source for CPI’s sampling 

frames for its Commodities and Services Initiation 

and Pricing Surveys
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TPOPS Declining Response Rates 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 Q064 Q072 Q074 Q082 Q084 Q092 Q094 Q102 Q104 Q112 Q114 Q122 Q124 Q132 Q134 Q142 Q144 Q152 Q154 Q162 Q164 Q172 Q174 Percent of sample that were interviews

Quarter
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Phone numbers needed

to obtain an interview

0

5

10

15

20

25

Q064Q072Q074Q082Q084Q092Q094Q102Q104Q112Q114Q122Q124Q132Q134Q142Q144Q152Q154Q162Q164Q172Q174

Phone numbers for a successful interview

Quarter

Hit Rate (INT=1) Hit Rate (INT>1)
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No significant increase in budget
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Two Parallel Tracks

TPOPS

Mitigation strategies

Replacements
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Mitigation strategies

 Increase the number of advance letters

 Reduce the number of call attempts

 Reduce the number of refusal conversion 

attempts

 Change to an eight panel design

 Decrease the target number of interviews 

each quarter
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Big data replacements

 Census of Retail Trade

No access to data on small businesses

 Online quota surveys

Low response rates, high non-response bias

 BLS’ Longitudinal Database

All items a business sells is unknown

CPI needs where people spend, not businesses in a city

 Adding outlet questions to the Consumer Expenditure Surveys
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Consumer Expenditure Surveys

 Personal visit surveys

 Conducted by Census for BLS

 Two surveys

Quarterly Interview

– CAPI

– Once a quarter for four quarters

Diary

– Two consecutive one-week diaries
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Advantages of CE

 CE already collects expenditures used by the 

CPI

 Collects expenditures at the level needed for 

stores

 Better response rates
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30

35

40

45

50

55

60

65

70

75

80

Q064Q071Q072Q073Q074Q081Q082Q083Q084Q091Q092Q093Q094Q101Q102Q103Q104Q111Q112

q113

Q114Q121Q122Q123Q124Q131Q132Q133Q134Q141Q142Q143Q144Q151Q152Q153Q154Q161Q162Q163Q164Q171Q172Q173Q174

TPOPS and CE response rates

2006-2017

TPOPS response rate CE response rate
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Challenges: Adding outlet questions to CE

 Different cities

 Outlet and expenditure data quality

 Respondent burden

 Outlet yield
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Geographic Revision 2010

 CE implemented the geographic revision 

based on the 2010 Census in 2015

 CPI published indexes for the new geography 

beginning in January 2018
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Outlet question tests in CE

 Third quarter 2016 added outlet questions

Only fourth interviews

Outlet questions for TVs, some apparel and event 

tickets

 Second and third quarters 2017: respondents 

received subsets of questions

 Third quarter 2018 will continue to add additional 

outlet questions

 Second quarter 2019 will add all outlet questions
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Conclusions from production tests

 Adding outlet questions does not negatively 

impact reported expenditures

 Respondents are able to report where they 

purchased items

 Allowed for estimates of burden and outlet 

yield
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Respondent burden

Interview

 143 POPS categories 

 Broken up into 16 groups of expenditure 

categories or ‘POPS groups’

 One POPS group asked each quarter

 Asking only outlet name, city, and state

 Minimizes respondent burden to 1-5 

additional minutes
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Total added burden by POPS group
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Respondent burden

Diary

 41 POPS categories

 All outlets over two week period reported

 Only outlet name will be collected
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Outlet yield

 Defined as the number of outlets collected for 

each CPI frame

 Need enough outlets to select a 

representative sample

 Current desired yield: 6-8 times the number 

of outlets that will be selected
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Outlet yield concerns

 TPOPS has variable recall periods

One week for frequently purchased items

Five years for infrequently purchased items

 CE Interview – Three month recall period

 CE Diary – One week recall period
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Outlet yield concerns

 TPOPS’ sample = 40,000 interviews/year

 CE Interview’s sample = 33,000* interviews/year

 CE Diary’s sample = 15,000* interviews/year

* Includes estimated sample increase
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Estimates of outlet yield

 TPOPS median outlet yield ratio is 9

 The CE highest estimated median outlet yield 

ratio is 5.4
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Distribution of outlet yield ratios
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Extended recall questions

 Outlet yield analysis show that CPI will need 

more outlets than are expected to be 

collected in the body of the Interview

 For questions with no reported expenditures, 

an extended recall question will be asked at 

the end of the survey

 Extended recall will use TPOPS recall periods*

* 30-90 day recall periods will be extended to six months
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Final design

 Quarterly Interview

Outlet questions asked in all interviews

Rotating panels

– 16 POPS groups

– Outlet questions from one POPS group per quarter per 

city

– All items asked over four year period

Extended recall section

 Diary

Outlet column added to three sections
Contact Information

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Madeleine Saxton

Economist

Division of Consumer Prices and Price 

Indexes

www.bls.gov/cpi

202-691-6874

saxton.madeleine@bls.gov