For a long time, one of the most common questions in food retail was simple: where is the consumer going?

Today, that question may no longer be enough.

Consumers are not moving toward one single place. They are moving toward a mission.

They go to the neighborhood market when they need to solve something close to home. They use an app when they want to turn distance into time. They go to cash and carry when they are willing to drive, walk through a larger store and fill the trunk in search of price. They go to an emporium when they want curation, quality and trust. They go to a traditional supermarket when they find a clear balance between convenience, assortment, service and acceptable pricing.

The problem is that this combination is becoming harder to defend.

Small neighborhood markets still have a strength that many people underestimate. In many regions, they remain relevant because of service, informal credit, real proximity, the owner who knows the customer by name, empathy and a kind of warmth that large chains cannot easily copy.

The product, in many cases, is the same product found anywhere else. The milk is the same. The rice is the same. The cold drink is the same. The bread, the cleaning product, the soda, the beer, much of the assortment can be found in other channels.

The difference lies in the relationship.

It is in the “take it now and pay me later”. It is in the “I saved the product you like”. It is in the “your mother stopped by earlier”. It is in the kind of bond that turns an ordinary store into part of the neighborhood routine.

But this relationship is also being tested.

In large cities, new competitors have entered the neighborhood with much more capital, data, standardization and expansion capacity. Large supermarket chains have invested in proximity formats because they understood that there was no longer enough room to compete only through the traditional supermarket model, especially with the rise of cash and carry.

The pandemic accelerated this movement. Consumers spent more time at home, bought closer to home, reorganized their routines and rediscovered the importance of neighborhood life.

But the same pandemic also accelerated another competitor, one that has no corner, no storefront and no sign on the street.

The app.

Digital expansion brought apps and logistics as direct rivals to traditional models. An item missing for dinner, a cold drink, a medicine, a cleaning product or a quick replenishment order can arrive at the customer’s door in minutes.

There is an important distinction here.

It is not the consumer going to the store. It is the store going to the consumer.

The customer knows that the product may not be nearby. They understand that the store may be a few kilometers away. But if it arrives fast, distance loses part of its importance. Proximity is no longer only geographic. It becomes a perception of time.

The store may be far on the map, but close in the customer’s mind.

This may be one of the biggest changes in food retail: proximity is no longer only about address.

There is the proximity of the corner, measured in steps.
There is the proximity of delivery, measured in minutes.
There is emotional proximity, measured in trust.
And there is economic proximity, measured by how much the consumer feels they made a good choice.

This is where cash and carry became so powerful.

When consumers search for price, cash and carry has become a reference. This is not by chance. In a country where income is under pressure, the shopping basket is watched closely and food weighs heavily on the household budget, price is not just a commercial argument. It is a condition for choice.

But the success of cash and carry has created new challenges.

When many banners decide to invest in the same format, competition becomes more intense, markets become more crowded and margins start to depend on an increasingly efficient operation. Cash and carry needs to sell a lot, turn inventory fast, issue many tickets and maintain strict cost discipline to sustain its promise.

That is why a curious movement is beginning to happen.

Some cash and carry chains are adding services, expanding categories, bringing in pharmacies, payment solutions, ready to eat food, financial services, private labels, convenience areas and new experiences inside the store.

In other words, the format that grew by taking space from the old hypermarket is now beginning to incorporate elements that resemble the hypermarket of the past.

The difference is that the consumer’s standards have changed.

Consumers do not want a large store just because it is large. They want every square meter to solve something. They want price when buying volume. They want practicality when they are in a hurry. They want curation when searching for quality. They want trust when buying fresh products. They want convenience when they do not want to leave home. They want experience when they decide to pay more.

Food retail, therefore, is no longer only a dispute between formats. It has become a dispute between reasons for choice.

And this makes the middle ground much more dangerous.

The retailer that is not the cheapest, not the closest, not the fastest, not the most reliable, not the most specialized and does not create any meaningful emotional bond begins to get squeezed.

Not because consumers stopped buying.

But because they have learned to separate their missions more clearly.

When they want price, they tolerate displacement.
When they want urgency, they tolerate paying more.
When they want quality, they accept choosing better and buying less.
When they want relationship, they value those who recognize them.
When they want a simpler routine, they choose whoever removes friction.

This fragmentation appears more and more in consumer research. Brazilians have not abandoned one channel to migrate permanently to another. They have started to combine more channels, visit more points of sale, reduce the size of some shopping trips and choose more carefully where each need will be met.

This changes the strategic reading.

For a long time, retail tried to classify consumers by format. Cash and carry customers. Supermarket customers. Neighborhood market customers. Emporium customers. App customers.

That consumer, isolated inside a box, is increasingly hard to find.

The same person may buy rice, beans and cleaning products at cash and carry on Saturday. Order a cold drink through an app on Sunday. Stop by the neighborhood market on Monday. Buy better meat at an emporium on Friday. Take advantage of an offer at a traditional supermarket in the middle of the week.

This is not incoherence.

It is the management of routine.

That is why the concept of the 15 minute neighborhood makes so much sense for retail. The idea of solving a large part of everyday life within a short distance, accessible on foot or by bike, reinforces the importance of local commerce, nearby services and neighborhood life.

But perhaps, in today’s retail, this concept needs to be expanded.

There is the 15 minute neighborhood on foot, where physical proximity still decides.

There is the 15 minute neighborhood by delivery, where the product is not close, but arrives fast.

There is the 15 minute neighborhood by car, where consumers accept displacement to gain price and volume.

And there is the 15 minute neighborhood of decision, where the brand needs to be remembered even before the search begins.

The purchase on foot is the purchase of real proximity. It is bread, milk, fruit, the forgotten item, the quick conversation, known service, the small daily replenishment.

The purchase that arrives by motorcycle is the purchase of perceived speed. The consumer knows that the store may not be close. But if the product arrives in a few minutes, distance loses importance. In this case, the customer does not go to retail. Retail goes to the customer.

The purchase by car is the purchase of stock up. It is the planned trip, the price comparison, the volume, the full trunk, the perception of savings and the feeling of having made a more rational purchase.

These three purchases can be made by the same person, in the same week, sometimes on the same day.

This is the central point.

Consumers no longer choose only between neighborhood markets, supermarkets, cash and carry, emporiums or apps. They choose who solves their mission best at that specific moment.

For the small neighborhood market, the answer cannot be only to resist with sympathy. Sympathy helps, but it does not sustain everything. It is necessary to improve assortment, organize simple customer data, manage categories better, communicate offers, use WhatsApp, create recurrence and turn relationships into management.

Knowing the customer by name remains an advantage. But knowing the customer by name and not understanding what they buy, when they buy, why they stopped buying and which products could increase their frequency is wasting a huge advantage.

For large proximity chains, the challenge is not to look like a small store with the soul of a cold operation. Scale helps, but neighborhoods require local reading. The same store that works in an affluent region may not work in the same way in a popular area. The same assortment that solves one location may feel distant in another.

Proximity is not just opening a smaller store. It is understanding the surroundings better.

For cash and carry, the challenge is not to lose itself trying to be everything to everyone. The more services it adds, the more it needs to protect its main promise: price, volume and efficiency. If cash and carry becomes too expensive, too complex or too confusing, it risks weakening exactly what made it strong.

For apps, the challenge is to prove that convenience can walk together with perceived value. Fast delivery is attractive, but fees, higher prices, out of stocks and poor substitutions can quickly break trust. Speed drives the first purchase. Consistency builds recurrence.

For emporiums and specialized models, the opportunity lies in curation. When everything can be found anywhere, choosing well for the customer becomes a service. Quality, origin, freshness, experience and trust can sustain smaller models, as long as the value is clear.

The consumer is not going to one single destination.

They are distributing their choices.

They go where their mission is best solved at that moment. Sometimes, that will be the neighborhood market. Sometimes, the app. Sometimes, cash and carry. Sometimes, the emporium. Sometimes, a proximity store from a large chain.

So the question for retailers is no longer only where the consumer will buy.

The question is tougher.

In which shopping mission are you still the best answer?

Because those who cannot answer this clearly risk being trapped in the worst possible place in retail: the middle without positioning.

Not cheap enough to justify displacement.
Not close enough to justify convenience.
Not fast enough to justify the app.
Not special enough to justify the price.
Not close enough to justify preference.

Consumers are still shopping.

They are simply going wherever makes more sense.