Circle K purchased the Big Red Stores chain. Many Big Red Stores were Big Red and Valero before the name change to Circle K. However, Circle K also acts as the gas station in many locations. Does a method exist for me to report the old businesses as closed and report Circle K as a convenience store & gas station? Google Maps tends to reject if I try to create one for each next to each other even if I provide the phone number, address, name, etc. I leave the location blank since I work on the entire State of Arkansas.
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Hello @Androoh
As far as I know, claimed businesses(business owners) can add multiple categories. More information can be found in the below link,
https://support.google.com/business/answer/7249669?hl=en
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Hello @Androoh
Your post seems a bit unclear but from the little I understood from it I’ll answer. That’s why it’s better to write one a question or issue at a time not to complicate the matter and answer.
When a buisness changes name it’s possible to change that on the maps when editing Or even change the buisness altogether.
When the buisness no longer exits you can also close it down as permanently closed. As a local guide if you are trying to edit a place that’s claimed,and it’s not working out. You are free to approach the owners or management and speak to them about. They can always edit it on their GMB page !!!
The last thing is a buisness on the maps can’t have 2 categories at the same time. It’s either one category or the other. If there is a category like Grill and Bar for instance that’s ok to use.
As in your case,if a category exists on the maps for convenience store and gas station you are free to use it. If it doesn’t exist,sorry you can put 2 categories together on one buisness entity. You also can’t create a category of your own.
Hopefully this will answer your questions.
Happy guiding
Cheers
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Hi @SholaIB
@deepakjhic actually gave the correct answer. It is possible to add additional categories, but this is not something Local Guides can do. Only the owners of the business can.
From the link provided by @deepakjhic :
All the best
Morten
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@SholaIB , You understood my issue. I did not realize I added more than one topic. I guess marking the old business’ names as closed might have been the other topic. Thank you for clarifying! You explain well. If each Circle K (just an example) is a convenience store and gas station, would selecting one category over the other be a better choice?
Hi @Androoh
We have a parallel issue here in Denmark. The train stations had a hard time manning all stations and making a profit. So DSB (the national rail company) teamed up with 7-Eleven. Now the tickets are sold from the 7-eleven counters. Here is one such example: https://goo.gl/maps/gF14Npr5HuezyVuYA They named the business “DSB 7-Eleven” and the category is Kiosk. But as time goes by everyone knows that a 7-Eleven at a station is also selling train tickets. But the station still has its pin with timetables etc.
Another example are the Petrol/Gas stations called Shell which also teamed up with 7-Eleven to save on staff. At this place there are still two separate pins on Google Maps even though it is actually the same business (one entrance and same staff). This allows them to keep two different and visible categories. The same merger resulted in one pin here. Both businesses are named in one title field: Shell/7-Eleven. And the category is Gas pump. This is not a real problem, because it is very common knowledge that Shell and 7-Eleven run the kiosk and the gas pump with the same staff. So whether the category is Gas station or Kiosk is not a problem.
I don’t think these are ideal solutions but keep in mind that business owners can add extra categories (invisible to Maps users) so they will always show up in searches for both categories.
I hope this helps a bit.
Cheers
Morten
Hello @Androoh
Yes that could be a separate topic but it’s ok now.
For the other issue yes. Just think of an appropriate category since you can’t add more than one as a local guide. If the buisness owner wants,they can effect any change(s) required on their GMB page if it’s claimed.
Happy guiding
Cheers