A transaction based location assignment system creates a complete and more accurate location assignment database for all products available in a store. Transaction data from checkout stands (point of sale terminals) spread around a department store, and the location of each of those checkout stands during POS transactions, is used to create a most probable location of items available in the store. Memory matrixes are built comprising product purchase or transaction information from the checkout stands, and the location of each of the checkout stands, and weighting based on other factors, provide for a best fit match to determine the most probable location within the store of all items within the store. The transaction based location system has the capability to work both for items having a single location in the store, as well as for items available from multiple physical locations in the store.