Walmart and Random Forest

In the recent Walmart Kaggle competition I used a Random Forest classifier to solve a market basket problem. A market basket model is built on the idea there exists relationships between items purchased together. For example, a person purchasing a new toothbrush is more likely to also purchase toothpaste than motor oil in the same shopping. Retailers use these market basket relationships in the design of their stores for ease of use and also to increase sales. In this specific problem Walmart has broken up their shopping trips into 38 unique'TripType'.