Where to put the next dark store
Blocks with many people and few shops, for the next dark store.
What it does
Every quarter: the blocks of your city with the most residents and the fewest supermarkets and grocery stores within 1 km, for where a 15-minute delivery dark store would win, emailed and mapped.
In one sentence: Monthly on the 1st at 08:00, in Mumbai, count who lives around, sort them by population and keep the top 80, count the supermarkets, grocery stores and convenience stores within 1 km of each, sort them by nearby_count and keep the top 15, write a report with xMap AI, then show them on a map and email the list to you.
Why it is useful
A dark store wins where people are many and shops are few. This finds those blocks.
Who it is for
Food delivery & quick commerce. Delivery apps, quick commerce and courier operations signing restaurants and shops, placing dark stores and keeping riders safe and on time. Every use case for food delivery & quick commerce
Best use cases
- A quick commerce company
- A grocery chain going online
- A logistics real estate developer
What each run gives you
- A map
- An email
The time it saves
Monthly on the 1st at 08:00. Doing the same work by hand takes about 240 minutes each time; it runs about 1 time a month, so it saves about 4 hours a month (an estimate). It is medium: 9 blocks.
The flow, block by block
- On the 1st of every monthTrigger · ScheduleStarts the flow on a timetable.
- My cityWhere · Area of interestSets where the flow looks: countries, cities or specific places, or areas you draw on a map.
- People in every block of the cityxMap data · DemographicsWho lives in an area: the number of residents, men and women, and nine age groups, from xMap’s population grid (hexagons of about 0.1 km², about 100 countries).
- Best 80 firstLogic · Sort and limitPuts the items in order, and can keep only the first ones: the 10 best rated, the 20 nearest, the highest fit scores.
- Grocery within 1 kmxMap data · Nearby placesPlaces around a point from xMap’s own places database (300M+ places, refreshed every month): pick the types of place (more than 5,000, such as Restaurant, Cafe, Pharmacy, Hospital or Gas station, or a whole group of them) and how far to look.
- The fewest nearby firstLogic · Sort and limitPuts the items in order, and can keep only the first ones: the 10 best rated, the 20 nearest, the highest fit scores.
- Write the dark store notexMap AI · xMap LLMTell the AI what to do in plain words.
- Show them on a mapAction · Show on a mapShows the results as points on a map, with the area of interest.
- Email me the listAction · EmailSends one email per run with all the items, or one email per item.
Every block can be changed after you use the template: the city, the type of place, the score, where the results go.
Use it now
Answer a few questions, enter your work email, and it runs in your own account, kept running until you pause it. Use this template.
How to set it up
- Build your first flow in ten minutes: From a blank page to a flow that emails you a ranked list every morning.
- Ask the map a question: How many of a kind of place, how many people for each, and where the gaps are, answered on the spot.
- Count what is around each of your places: Competitors, footfall magnets or services within a distance of each site.
- Compare sites side by side: Two or three spots measured the same way, one column each, the best of every row marked and the best site and why.
- Location intelligence: Using where things are, and what is around them, to make business decisions.
- Site selection: Choosing where to open a store, branch, clinic or facility.
- How to score candidate store sites: Compare sites on residents, competitors and neighbours, with an AI score and a reason.
More for Food delivery & quick commerce
- Well-loved restaurants that likely do not deliver yet: Well-loved restaurants likely without delivery, with the owner.
- Rider rest hubs where restaurants cluster: Spots where restaurants cluster, for rider rest hubs.
- Campuses with the most students nearby, for promos: Campuses ranked by the students living nearby, for promos.
- Field sales routes to sign up new restaurants: New independent restaurants shared between your field reps in the best visiting order.
- Independent grocers, butchers and fruit shops for quick commerce: Independent grocers, butchers and fruit shops graded as partners.
- Office clusters for a lunch subscription: Office clusters for a lunch subscription, with the office manager.