The city rankings are updated periodically in the Rand McNally Commercial Atlas and Marketing Guide, an annual two-volume set, which is available in many libraries.
Among the criteria for categorization are retail sales, newspaper circulation, and the presence of universities and hospitals and corporate headquarters.
Rand McNally divides the country into basic trading areas (487 as of 2008), each of which has exactly one A-rated city.
[1] New York City has always been given the unique rating 1-AAAA due to its preeminent status in the national hierarchy.
Example: Ohio The system is applied by businesses seeking to serve a network of customers with the greatest efficiency.
For example, a company that services elevators or a wholesaler of paper bags would want to locate its field representatives primarily in A rated cities.