These magazines sometimes publish demographic studies of all American communtities above a given population. Of course as a consumer you are able to access any of their public information. Many companies produce media kits for news and advertising purposes that can be obtained, usually for free. Businesses will be more or less willing to part with other information. A visit to the business itself may yield important information.
Observation is a key part of market research and can be practiced when shopping the competition.
Federal and state government agencies publish large numbers of documents annually. They can be obtained directly from the agency involved or from public and university libraries. Trade associations, chambers of commerce, business publications and others business-related organizations can help. The other basic source of information is primary data. There are essentially two forms, subjective and measurable.