36 • July | August 2026 • abasto.com POR JULIO IBÁÑEZ JULIO@JULIOIBANEZ.NET F or years, the retail industry has organized its stores around product categories. Groceries on one side, Hispanic products on another, international items in a corner, private label products in a separate section, and produce, meat, and deli, all operating almost like in- dependent businesses within the supermarket. The problem is that customers no longer shop that way, and here lies one of the biggest mistakes I continue to see in many independent supermarkets: we’re still organizing stores for a consumer who has already changed. You don’t need a major study to understand this. Just spend a few minutes watching shopping carts at the chec- kout. Today, in a single shopping trip, tortillas sit alongsi- de artisanal bread, Greek yogurt alongside Central Ame- rican cream, ready-to-eat products, fresh fruit, snacks, private-label items, and international brands. Customers no longer shop in “separate worlds”; they shop by planning for their week, their family, their bud- get, and their time. The New Reality That’s the new shopping cart, and although many still talk about the multicultural consumer as if it were an additio- nal segment, the reality is different: it has already become part of general consumption in American supermarkets. Today’s shoppers blend habits, cultures, formats, and con- sumption occasions with absolute ease, and we see it every day: non-Hispanic shoppers buying traditionally Latino pro- ducts. Multicultural families are blending products from di- fferent countries into the same shopping basket. We have new generations growing up without those shopping barriers that retailers tried to segment for years. The fact is that customers have already integrated their shopping. The question is whether the store has done the same, because this raises a problem that’s rarely stated clearly: many supermarkets are still managing categories as if it were 2015. The Art of Space Management Many retailers believe they have a sales problem when, in reality, they have a space allocation problem, and this isn’t a matter of store size. It’s a matter of understanding our customers’ needs. The new shopping cart is giving us very clear signals about where repeat business and relevance lie today. Fresh produce departments remain one of the biggest drivers of foot traffic. Customers are still willing to switch stores for quality, perceived freshness, and execution. The New Shopping Cart Retail Academy Convenience and Assortment Set the Tone • ADVICE Convenience also matters more than ever. Ready-to- eat solutions, family-size formats, easy-to-prepare products, and clear value propositions are beginning to shape many purchasing decisions. Meanwhile, private label is no longer just a mar- gin-boosting tool. It is increasingly becoming a tool for building loyalty and perceived value. But perhaps the biggest change is taking place in the multicultural product assortment; it’s no longer about creating a “Hispanic section”—that model is starting to fall short. Today, we’re talking about true integration— understanding which categories should coexist within the customer’s natural shopping experience. Therefore, the mistake isn’t failing to have a mul- ticultural product assortment; the mistake is conti- nuing to view it as something separate from the rest of the store. Here, independent retailers still have a huge advantage: they can adapt more quickly, better understand their community, adjust their product as- sortments without the bureaucracy of large corpora- tions, and respond more quickly. But that advantage only exists if we make an uncom- fortable decision: to question how the store is actually organized, because the consumer has already decided. They’ve changed the way they shop, the competition is already adjusting its formats, and the new shopping cart is already telling us where the business is headed. The only question remaining is whether, as retai- lers, we’re willing to listen to them.