I find that even after using OSM for a while, I still have to decide every time whether Starbucks is a
amenity=restaurant; cuisine=coffe shop, or
amenity=cafe; cuisine=coffe_shop, or
amenity=coffee_house, or
something else
Judging by the XAPI/JOSM data for name=Starbucks, others are making decisions, too, and coming up with pretty wide variety of answers.
The same goes for Costco (membership warehouse) and many other retail and food chains I am tagging.
It would be nice to be able to just go to the wiki, do a search for “Starbucks” or “Costco” and know what the “right” tags for them are.
I see two ways of getting there, one or both can be implemented.
- For each tag, have a section in the template to list chains that fit that tag.
So for Tag:cuisine=coffee shop (not that it’s written very clearly) there would be a section
Chains this tag applies to
Starbucks
Seattle’s Best
Tim Hortons
…
This list would aim to be exhaustive and open to discussion. If a user does not find their regional or national chain on the list (or anywhere else in the wiki), but determines that the chain should be so tagged, they would be encouraged to add the name to the list.
- Have a separate page to list ALL multinational, national and regional chains, sorted either by region, type of business or alphabetically, specifying the applicable tags. For example
Chain name Regions Tags Comments
Costco North America, UK, shop=membership
Australia, etc.
Starbucks Multinational amenity=cafe; cuisine=coffe_shop
Tim Hortons Canada, select US amenity=restaurant; cuisine=coffee_shop
states
The Regions column is pretty much optional.