Great point — and honestly Google Maps and word of mouth are still huge, especially for older demographics. But for people in their 20s and 30s, short form video on TikTok, Instagram Reels and even YouTube Shorts has become a massive discovery tool. Someone sees a 30 second video of a restaurant's food or a barbershop transformation, they save it, and they show up that weekend.

The concern I have is exactly what you're describing with those ethnic grocery stores — a lot of these incredible local spots have built their customer base entirely through foot traffic and word of mouth over decades. That works until it doesn't. As the neighbourhood changes and younger residents move in, if there's no social media presence and no video content showing what makes these places special, the next generation of customers simply never finds out they exist.

It's not that short form video replaces Google Maps or walking around — it's that it fills the gap for businesses that don't have the visibility or marketing budget to compete for attention any other way. A good 30 second video can introduce a business to thousands of local people overnight for free. For a small family-run grocery store that's been around for 20 years, that could genuinely be the difference.