Picture a grocery store in the Arizona desert.
Now picture the aisles. One holds thirty kinds of soy sauce. Another holds chiles you have never seen. There is a wall of fish sauce, a section of Polish jam, a rack of Indian spices sold by the kilo, and a butcher counter cutting things a national chain would not stock on a dare.
The people shopping there speak a dozen languages before lunch.
Every rule of modern grocery says this is a bad idea.
Retail wisdom says to pick a customer and serve them precisely. Narrow the assortment. Simplify the supply chain. Know exactly who walks in the door.
This store did the opposite and built something a national chain cannot touch.
The reason is a category of demand that big retailers have historically been terrible at measuring, and it is worth understanding because it explains a lot more than groceries.