Robert_Charlton - 8:08 am on Nov 5, 2010 (gmt 0)

Another variant... Place Pages are also appearing prominently in serps for very general (single-word) searches like "electronics" and "computers" that are returning brands, stores, and types as an expansion of related searches. The Place Pages are in the middle of the page-one organic results for such queries.

The local retail stores returned are a mixture of small stores and major-chain retail outlets. See my more detailed description on this thread....

Brands, Stores, Types - Related Searches expand
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4224193.htm [webmasterworld.com]

So, these are here to stay, but I'm thinking Google hasn't completely pinned down the format and perhaps never will.