docs: expand scope to local retail alongside services

- Strategy §1a: brick-and-mortar services + local retail in scope
- Pure online e-com remains out (Shopify lane)
- ICP, NORTH_STAR, README, product docs aligned
- Add UC-03 general store (toothbrush / chicken strips case)

docs/strategy/CANONICAL_STRATEGY.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # geolocal.io — Canonical Strategy
 
-**Status:** Final draft (2026-07-18; revised same day to restore full strategic depth)  
+**Status:** Final draft (2026-07-18; revised same day for strategic depth and local-retail scope)  
 **Role:** The document the team plans, builds, and sells against. When other docs disagree with this one, update them — or update this one deliberately. Do not leave the conflict hanging.
 
 This is an operating strategy, not a product brochure. The Self-Service Portal matters, but it is one activation surface. The company is the platform underneath.
@@ -9,11 +9,40 @@ This is an operating strategy, not a product brochure. The Self-Service Portal m
 
 ## 1. What we are
 
-geolocal.io is the infrastructure that lets local service businesses show up properly inside the AI era — discoverable, understandable, bookable, and measurable when someone asks an assistant for a plumber, a transmission shop, a fishing charter, or a place to rent bikes.
+geolocal.io is the infrastructure that lets **local businesses** show up properly inside the AI era — discoverable, understandable, and actionable when someone asks an assistant for a plumber, a transmission shop, a fishing charter, a place to rent bikes, **or the general store that still has the toothbrush they forgot and the chicken strips worth driving for.**
 
-We are not building another place for consumers to browse. We are not selling business owners a chatbot for their website. We are not trying to replace Yelp or Google as destinations people open on purpose.
+We are not building another place for consumers to browse. We are not selling business owners a chatbot for their website. We are not trying to replace Yelp or Google as destinations people open on purpose. We are not trying to replace Shopify for pure online merchants.
 
-We are the layer underneath. AI agents call us. Businesses own their presence. Tourism boards, chambers, and agencies help distribute it. In plain terms: we want to be for local services what Shopify’s Storefront MCP became for online stores — a simple, standard way for any AI to talk to a real business and complete the job.
+We are the layer underneath for **brick-and-mortar and local presence** — services *and* local retail. AI agents call us. Businesses own their presence. Tourism boards, chambers, and agencies help distribute it. In plain terms: Shopify made agent-ready commerce easy for online stores; we make agent-ready presence easy for the long tail of real-world local businesses that do not live inside a Shopify-class stack.
+
+---
+
+## 1a. Who is in scope (and who is not)
+
+The original exploration called out service businesses as the pain that is easiest to see. That was emphasis, not a hard wall. The North Star was aimed at **local businesses**, not “appointments only.”
+
+### In scope
+
+Businesses with a **real local footprint** that consumers ask AI about in place-based ways:
+
+| Kind | Examples | What “helpful” often means |
+|------|----------|----------------------------|
+| **Local services** | Auto repair, salon, home services, charters, clinics | Specialization, hours, booking path, pricing signals |
+| **Local retail** | General store, hardware, pharmacy, gift shop, outfitter | “Do you have X?”, what’s in stock or typically carried, specialties/food, hours, directions, pickup |
+| **Hybrid** | Bike shop that rents and sells, marina store, bakery with catering | Both inventory-ish answers *and* services/booking |
+
+The Athol, Idaho general store is a fair test case: an assistant should be able to say, with confidence rooted in the store’s own structured truth, that they carry toothbrushes and that the chicken strips are a known local draw — not invent it from a stale review scrape.
+
+### Out of scope (for now)
+
+- **Pure online commerce** with no meaningful local presence — that is Shopify Storefront MCP territory and peers  
+- National pure-play marketplaces (Amazon, large pure e-com brands building their own agent stacks)  
+- Trying to win Airbnb/Kayak-class lodging and travel packaging  
+- Becoming a consumer shopping destination site  
+
+### Sequencing, not exclusion
+
+Early genre packs and pilots can still **lead with services and tourism** (clear booking path, destination wedge). Local retail is **in the product vision and ICP from day one**. Retail primitives (assortment, “we carry,” specialties, hours) are a first-class genre family, not a later afterthought that contradicts the strategy.
 
 ---
 
@@ -29,11 +58,11 @@ What matters operationally is the shape of the answer. AI does not hand you a pa
 
 SOCi’s 2026 Local Visibility Index looked at roughly 350,000 locations across more than 2,700 multi-location brands. In that sample, ChatGPT recommended only about 1.2% of brand locations. Gemini and Perplexity were higher but still far below traditional Google local 3-pack visibility. Locations that do get recommended tend to look trustworthy — high ratings, complete profiles, consistent signals.
 
-Traditional local SEO still matters. It is no longer enough. Businesses need a machine-readable, up-to-date, bookable expression of who they are.
+Traditional local SEO still matters. It is no longer enough. Businesses need a machine-readable, up-to-date expression of who they are — and, when it applies, how to book, buy, pick up, or walk in.
 
 ### The long tail is last again
 
-Service-oriented local businesses are poorly positioned for this shift. The pattern rhymes with the early web: platforms and structured commerce move first; independent brick-and-mortar catches up late, if at all. Airline, hotel, rental-car, and large e-commerce players are already investing in agent-ready experiences. Bob’s Garage is not.
+Independent brick-and-mortar — **services and local retail** — is poorly positioned for this shift. The pattern rhymes with the early web: platforms and structured commerce move first; the general store, the garage, and the charter captain catch up late, if at all. Airlines, hotels, rental-car players, and Shopify-class merchants are already investing in agent-ready experiences. Athol’s general store and Bob’s Garage are not.
 
 ---
 
@@ -77,9 +106,9 @@ Relevance gets you considered. Helpfulness is why an assistant comes back. Helpf
 
 ## 4. North Star
 
-Make AI give the most relevant and helpful recommendation for a local service need — and then fulfill it.
+Make AI give the most relevant and helpful recommendation for a **local** need — and then help fulfill it when fulfillment applies (book, reserve, pick up, walk in with the right expectation).
 
-We stay focused on local service businesses. We are not trying to boil the ocean of all commerce.
+We stay focused on **local businesses with real-world presence**. We are not trying to boil the ocean of all global e-commerce.
 
 ---
 
@@ -109,15 +138,17 @@ Think of AI-first consumption as seven stages:
 
 If we drift into “we are an SEO company” or “we are a booking company,” we lose the plot.
 
-### What “as-built” looks like for SMBs in 2026
+### What “as-built” looks like for local SMBs in 2026
 
 When engines judge helpfulness, three dependency areas keep showing up:
 
-1. **Website** — can a machine understand what this business does?  
+1. **Website / public content** — can a machine understand what this business does or sells?  
 2. **Communication** — can a customer or agent complete a conversation path?  
-3. **Booking and payments** — can the job actually get scheduled and paid?
+3. **Transaction path** — booking, reservation, payment, pickup, or clear walk-in expectation  
 
-Some vendors in those lanes will grow their own MCPs (scheduling tools, salon platforms, POS systems). That is fine and expected. Those MCPs are usually **scenario-specific** — book a slot, take an order. They do not solve long-tail story, genre depth, destination aggregation, or a neutral business-owned presence that works across assistants. We complement them.
+For a salon, that third path may be appointments. For a general store, it may be “yes we carry that,” hours, and “come get it before six.” Both are local fulfillment. Neither requires us to become Shopify.
+
+Some vendors in those lanes will grow their own MCPs (scheduling tools, salon platforms, POS systems, big e-com platforms). That is fine and expected. Scenario-specific tools do not replace a neutral, business-owned local presence that works across assistants for the long tail.
 
 ---
 
@@ -149,13 +180,13 @@ Once enough endpoints and intermediates exist, the network itself becomes valuab
 
 ### Platform first
 
-What we actually sell is **AI-readiness infrastructure for local services**:
+What we actually sell is **AI-readiness infrastructure for local businesses** (services and local retail with real presence):
 
-1. **Hosted multi-tenant MCP** — structured tools agents call for story, services, hours, specialization, booking path, related businesses, and genre-specific detail.  
+1. **Hosted multi-tenant MCP** — structured tools agents call for story, hours, services or assortment signals, specialties, booking or visit path, related businesses, and genre-specific detail.  
 2. **Discovery attachment on the business domain** — not a single magic path only. Industry precedent is already multi-location and extensible (`/mcp`, commerce-style paths, AI context paths, well-known files). Those locations can point **off-domain** to hosted infrastructure such as geolocal. That extensibility is what makes “easy for Bob’s daughter” possible.  
 3. **Ingestion and content sync** — a strong channel from the business’s public content into the MCP. Garbage in, garbage out. If the source site cannot support helpful answers, the portal and reports have to say so.  
-4. **Genre packs** — vertical primitives. A salon MCP is not identical to a phone-repair MCP, even if some tools overlap.  
-5. **Orchestration of fulfillment partners** — Cal.com (and peers) for booking, Stripe (and peers) for payment. We integrate; we do not rebuild those categories.  
+4. **Genre packs** — vertical primitives. A salon MCP is not identical to a phone-repair MCP, and neither is identical to a general store that needs “do you carry X?” and house specialties.  
+5. **Orchestration of fulfillment partners** — Cal.com (and peers) where booking applies; Stripe/Square (and peers) where payment applies; inventory or POS hooks later where retail truth lives. We integrate; we do not rebuild those categories.  
 6. **Telemetry and owner insight** — not vanity dashboards. Concrete helpfulness feedback: what agents asked, where they bounced, how the business compares to category peers, what to change.  
 7. **Quality enforcement** — including the right to **decommission** chronically harmful endpoints. Bad data does not only hurt one customer; it taxes the trust of the whole network with AI engines.  
 8. **Intermediate surfaces** — destination and chamber MCPs plus operator dashboards.  
@@ -177,13 +208,14 @@ Generic “get business info” is scaffolding. Durable differentiation is genre
 - Beauty: services, duration, stylist context  
 - Home services: service radius, emergency vs scheduled, estimate vs fixed price  
 - Tourism activities: seasonality, capacity, weather sensitivity  
+- **Local retail / general store:** categories carried, flagship items or house specialties, “typically in stock” vs confirmed inventory when available, hours, pickup/walk-in guidance  
 - Intermediates: member directory and category routing  
 
-Roadmaps ship **genre packs**, not only generic endpoints.
+Roadmaps ship **genre packs**, not only generic endpoints. Services packs may ship first for pilot speed; retail packs are in-scope product, not a strategy exception.
 
 ### What we will not build in the near term
 
-We are not a consumer destination app. We are not competing with Calendly, Cal.com, or Square as booking engines. We are not competing with Stripe or Square as payment rails. We are not replacing Google Business Profile. We are not building a Yelp-style review network. We are not trying to out-Kayak Kayak or out-Airbnb Airbnb. Stay complementary to travel platforms; own the local service long tail they do not serve cleanly for AI agents.
+We are not a consumer destination app. We are not competing with Calendly, Cal.com, or Square as booking engines. We are not competing with Stripe or Square as payment rails. We are not replacing Google Business Profile. We are not building a Yelp-style review network. We are not trying to out-Kayak Kayak or out-Airbnb Airbnb. We are not trying to out-Shopify Shopify for pure online stores. Stay complementary to those platforms; own the long tail of **local** businesses they do not serve cleanly for AI agents.
 
 Upstream SEO/GEO checklists and partner referrals exist so businesses can *be found*. That work is enablement, not our core product category.
 
@@ -221,20 +253,21 @@ That last step is uncomfortable and necessary. Model 3 depends on it.
 
 ### Category
 
-AI-readiness infrastructure for local services — or, shorter, agentic local commerce infrastructure.
+AI-readiness infrastructure for **local businesses** — or, shorter, agentic local commerce infrastructure.
 
 ### Analogies that help
 
-- **Shopify Storefront MCP for local services** — usually the clearest one-liner  
-- **Stripe for AI discovery and booking presence** — infrastructure, not another consumer app  
-- **Service registry for the long tail** — 2028 language when talking to platforms and sophisticated partners  
+- **Shopify Storefront MCP, but for local brick-and-mortar** — clear for technical audiences; includes local retail without claiming we replace Shopify  
+- **Stripe for AI discovery and local presence** — infrastructure, not another consumer app  
+- **Service and local-retail registry for the long tail** — 2028 language when talking to platforms and sophisticated partners  
 
 ### Messaging that works
 
-- **Business owner:** Make every AI assistant understand and book your business.  
-- **Tourism board:** Turn lodging-tax dollars into AI-discoverable local experiences your members own.  
+- **Business owner (services):** Make every AI assistant understand and book your business.  
+- **Business owner (retail):** Make sure AI can tell people what you actually carry and why you’re worth the stop.  
+- **Tourism board:** Turn lodging-tax dollars into AI-discoverable local experiences and businesses your members own.  
 - **Agency or partner:** Add AI-readiness as a productized line — not another chatbot retainer.  
-- **Investor:** A neutral MCP layer for the vast majority of local services AI currently skips, distributed through self-serve and municipal partners.
+- **Investor:** A neutral MCP layer for the vast majority of local businesses AI currently skips, distributed through self-serve and municipal partners.
 
 ### Language to avoid
 
@@ -257,9 +290,9 @@ Motion:
 3. Fund it with tourism marketing budgets, innovation RFPs, or visitor-experience framing.  
 4. Give members free or discounted endpoints during the pilot, then convert to paid.
 
-### Parallel motion: self-service small businesses
+### Parallel motion: self-service local businesses
 
-While intermediates mature, sell direct into high-intent verticals — auto repair, beauty, home services — and tourism activities when a destination pilot needs them.
+While intermediates mature, sell direct into high-intent verticals — auto repair, beauty, home services, tourism activities when a destination pilot needs them — **and** local retail where the “do you have it / what’s special here” job is obvious.
 
 ### Partners as distribution
 
@@ -440,9 +473,9 @@ If two documents disagree, resolve it on purpose.
 
 ## 18. Closing
 
-The company worth building is the platform: multi-tenant MCP, genre systems, ingestion, quality, intermediate upgrade path, and eventually a service graph. The Self-Service Portal is how ordinary businesses turn that platform on. Tourism boards are how we attach many endpoints at once. Trust and decommissioning are how we stay preferred by machines that only name one or two winners.
+The company worth building is the platform: multi-tenant MCP, genre systems (services **and** local retail), ingestion, quality, intermediate upgrade path, and eventually a service-and-place graph. The Self-Service Portal is how ordinary businesses turn that platform on. Tourism boards are how we attach many endpoints at once. Trust and decommissioning are how we stay preferred by machines that only name one or two winners.
 
-Market conditions support urgency without requiring panic. Consumers are using AI for local discovery. Recommendation is highly selective. Large platforms are MCP-enabling *their* layers. The long tail of local services still lacks a neutral on-ramp.
+Market conditions support urgency without requiring panic. Consumers are using AI for local discovery. Recommendation is highly selective. Large platforms are MCP-enabling *their* layers. The long tail of local businesses — the garage **and** the general store — still lacks a neutral on-ramp.
 
 Freeze strategy. Realign docs. Ship the platform. Activate with the portal. Scale through intermediates. Protect trust like it is the product — because for AI engines, it is.