Got it. 301 to your server where it's parsed. The details are here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9896877/dns-redirect-domain-to-subdomain

So you want your cake and eat it too? Don't we all! I think getting a thousand links to the root domain would be satisfaction enough.

One way would be to have the entrance page for all vendors be the same page. Each vendor would have a section on an auto scrollable layer (but without user scrolling).

Each vendor would have a distinctive page section href anchor IBL

<a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </a<span>name="ABCstore">.ABC Store info and links <a<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </a<span>name="XYZstore">.XYZ Store info and links
Each vendor would have a unique looking URL but all created urls would look the same to the bots, as they would ignore all to the right of the hashtag.
http://store.yourdomain.com/index.html#ABCstore, http://store.yourdomain.com/index.html#XYZstore, etc.

When the page loads the tagged vendor would display in the "open" area of the page for that layer so each vendor would appear to be unique.

The drawback would be the size of the page and number of links out.

Jonathan-

I can appreciate you frustration - what point2propertymanager.com has is better (much better) overall domain authority and trust than your site - this outweighs your better on page SEO. Although your competitor's page links are internal, those links are passing strong link juice from the root domain. Examining their IBLs in Open Site Explorer shows domains with DA of 100 (e.g. adobe.com - and while those 100 DA links are nofollows, they still send a strong domain trust signal) - your site doesn't have a data available in OSE, but it would undoubtedly show your IBLs to both fewer and weaker.

In short, if you want better SERPs, you'll need to get quality IBLs through serious, systematic link building.

Chas

Jonathan-

Your follow up reaffirms my suggestions where you need to take this to move up on your competitors. Link building is a difficult and multifaceted task, requiring dedications, perseverance (lots),  research and some charm (and persuasion). There have been numerous blog posts on SEOmoz (and elsewhere) regarding link building techniques; read them all - if your budget can handle it, there are some very savvy (and white hat) link builders out there that can help you but their services are not inexpensive.

Other methods include getting your users raving about how great your software is - offer free trials, killer customer service, urge your users to blog about you, get reviews, post those reviews on your site in a Google acceptable micro format.

best of luck along with your hard work

Jonathan -

Always a difficult task chasing (and obsessing over) a high a SERP. My search for your KW in Google found you at position 8. Perhaps your results are skewed by your search history and/or being logged into a Google account, which can personalize search results that give a higher weight to frequented searches and results (your own site).

Looking at you your competitors link profiles show much stronger domain authority and vastly greater number of links. You have only 1 externally followed link.Your on page SEO is better than some of them, but the strength of their link profiles trumps that.

Also check you loads times - I noticed your site was slow to come up, and I checked it in Google Page Speed where it time out, although a refresh did bring up an acceptable 83., so perhaps there is a third party item loading that is hanging up.

All things being equal, Google will put the most (or best) linked to site ahead. Quality links from trusted domains are the best way to insure a stronger, more consistent ranking.

Chas

F-

Google Places permits an upload of multiple business locations @ https://www.google.com/local/add/g?hl=en-US&gl=US#uploadfeed
you may want to review this help page:
Common issues that delay the bulk verification process:
http://support.google.com/places/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=173669
This caveat may hinder a bulk upload:
Multiple listings at the same physical location are not permitted within one feed. Please consolidate multiple services or businesses under one title.

As for your example URL from an SEO perspective, underscores between words are a programming legacy from days when spaces could be misinterpreted between Unix and Windows servers and are not conducive to good SEO. With an underscore Google joins the two words and sees them that way so landing_page is seen as landingpage whereas landing-page is seen as landing page. See this Matt Cutts video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=AQcSFsQyct8

Is there any other way to differentiate locations (branch ID) that convey more meaningful information (from an SEO perspective) and that would permit you to utilize Google Places? A suite number, even if it's superfluous?
C

Ferguson-

Hard to answer definitively without knowing your content/target. Numbers in your URL don't mean anything to SEs unless it's a keyword (like a ZIP, area code or model) - what does 0304 tell me or Google? You mention the possibility of multiple pages for a location, so if I assume the nature of the content for these pages is different I'd say you'd want to optimize the URLs to bolster your on page SEO. Let's say you have a site for dentists and the like, then your URLs might be:
Domain.com/locations/Columbus/OH/orthodontists
Domain.com/locations/Columbus/OH/dentists
Domain.com/locations/Columbus/OH/oral-surgeons

If the differences are purely location within a ZIP code for nearly identical stores (think Starbucks) then I'd let Google Places do the SEO work for you.

I have used the mechanical turk in a reputation management scenario to help move a negative search suggest down, down, down by having other searches conducted by turks, such as "brandname coupons", "brandname reviews". (The term was "brandname scam". ) Only a set number a week were tasked and always a different combo of terms. The actual mechanical turk task contracted for was at face value legit - to search for the particular set of terms and note where in the top 10 search results the "brandname" domain fell.