Why is there a "for" in this sentence, starting with "That is, " with a meaning "more exactly"

Question

This is from a text about mobile phones and battery replacements.

"......Many places offer same-day repairs, as long as the battery for your device is in stock. That is, for repair places with physical locations near you.**

I can understand the second sentence, but the use of "that is," (with a comma) seemed different than regular "that is" as in the case of "That is a cat."

I looked it up and learnt that "That is," means "to be more precise", or "in other words".

But then, why does the sentence continues with "for" after "that is", when "for" is not needed?

I would think the sentence without "for" would be fine. For instance "That is, the repair places with physical locations near you".

As you can see, there is no need to use a "for", is there?

Regards,

Answer 1

The construction might not be strictly grammatical, though its meaning is clear and I don't think I would have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out. Let's make up an example that works better:

You can get a sandwich at the deli. That is, if it's open.

Here, "that is" stands in for the entire previous sentence. That's not always a set formula, though:

I like Christmas trees. That is, live ones.

Here, you can't glue the two sentences together, but "live ones" could replace "Christmas trees" in the original sentence.

Your proposed rewrite of the sample sentence does something similar:

Many places offer same-day repairs, as long as the battery for your device is in stock. That is, repair places with physical locations near you.

Here, the entire phrase "repair places with physical locations near you" could replace "many places" in the original sentence. And no, by adding "for" the original version made that impossible.

The mistake probably came by confusing this usage with "That is true for repair places with...".