Here is a decision that looks irrational and is not.
Open a full size grocery store in a Chicago neighborhood that a national chain closed.
The national chain had data. They had site models, sales history and a corporate real estate team. They ran the numbers and left.
So why would anybody go in after them?
Because the national chain was answering a different question.
They were asking whether that store could hit a corporate performance threshold with a corporate cost structure.
The answer to that was no. The answer to whether a grocery store can operate profitably in that neighborhood is frequently yes, and a family owned operator with different economics can find it.
A company that started as a produce stand in Chicago has been proving that for years, and the logic is worth understanding carefully because it applies to a lot more than groceries.