The standard "store locator" right now does exactly what it advertises: it finds stores. Probably near you. You get a big old list, and if you click one, you can view more information on it. It answers the question, "Where is the nearest X store?"

However, I think if someone really dug into what users really were looking for, I think the question would often be closer to: "Where is the nearest X store that I can get to right now?"

This is a subtle, but big difference.

Let's take the case of Bank of America. Banks are notorious for their strange hours; however each branch usually has one or two days a week that they are open late. Living near Boston, this means that at any given weekday evening at 4:55pm, there is probably one or two bank branches that I can get to before they close. (the ones that are open until 6pm...)

Right now, if I wanted to find that branch, I'd have to use the store locator and sift through every result until I found the one I was looking for. There are plenty that are open til 5pm, but those aren't very helpful to me. I gave them my address - they should be able to tell me the nearest branch that I can reasonably get to before it closes.