608 units of the 503 franchise networks measured are in airports, hypermarkets, gas stations, shopping arcades and other high-traffic locations, 1.0% of the total, compared with 21.3% in shopping centers, an indicator that also counts 82 of them

Location determines the customer base and the occupancy cost of a franchise unit. In airports, transit stations, bus terminals, hospitals, hypermarkets and gas stations, the flow of people is provided by the facility itself, the available area is usually small, which favors kiosks and compact stores, and leasing depends on the space manager, as in shopping centers. The CNPJ (Brazilian company registry) records the address of each establishment, and the address complement indicates, in some cases, the terminal, station or anchor store where the unit operates.

Of the 57,941 active CNPJs of the 503 measured networks, referred to here as units, 608 (1.0%) have an address in airports, hypermarkets, gas stations, shopping arcades, transit stations, bus terminals and hospitals, compared with 21.3% in shopping centers under the dedicated indicator, which also counts 82 of these units. The most frequent type is the airport, with 199 units of 45 networks, followed by hypermarket, cash-and-carry store or supermarket, with 173, and by gas station, with 87. Among these units, 19.6% have a kiosk, box or container in the address complement, compared with 6.4% among the other units with a filled-in complement outside shopping centers.

Presence is concentrated in a few networks. Among the 484 networks with 30 or more active units and not on the namesake-risk list, 128 have at least one unit in these locations, and 6 have 10% or more of their units in them. The highest share is that of Deltaexpresso, with 57.6%, the only network with the majority of its units in these locations. Among the categories with 20 or more units in these locations, the highest shares are those of coffee shops (6.9%), juices and mate (3.3%) and laundries (2.9%). In coffee shops and in juices and mate, a single network accounts for more than half of the numerator (Deltaexpresso and Cosechas). In laundries, with no network above half, the most frequent type is the gas station.

How we calculate

In the open CNPJ data of Receita Federal (the federal tax authority), reference month October 2026, we read the address of the 57,941 active establishments that the observatory's census attributes to the 503 networks with at least 30 establishments in the subset. Each address was classified by the markers in the complement and in the street name, such as passenger terminal, boarding area or airport name, subway, CPTM (the São Paulo metropolitan rail operator) or railway station, intercity bus, bus or ferry terminal, hospital, campus, name or type of hypermarket, cash-and-carry store or supermarket, gas station (posto or auto posto) and gallery. Proximity expressions, such as próximo, em frente or ao lado (near, opposite or next to), and place names, such as Jardim Aeroporto, Avenida do Aeroporto, Setor Hospitalar and Cidade Universitária, are removed before reading, and the neighborhood does not decide on its own. For airports, the classification extends to the other establishments at the same postal code (CEP) and number, or on the same street and number, when there are two or more markers there, or one in a large-user postal code, which added 53 units. An establishment whose address, or that of another at the same postal code and number, mentions shopping, mall or outlet is left out. When an address has markers of more than one type, the order airport, station, bus station or terminal, hospital, university, hypermarket, gas station and gallery applies.

From each type we drew up to 50 cases, read one by one with the full address. Precision, the share of cases in which the address confirms the type, was 100% in 50 cases for airport; 100% in 50 cases for hypermarket, cash-and-carry store or supermarket; 96% in 47 cases for gas station; 98% in 49 cases for shopping arcade; 100% in 49 cases for subway or train station; 100% in 18 cases for intercity bus station or bus and ferry terminal; and 100% in 8 cases for hospital. Only types with a precision of 80% or more and at least 5 confirmed units are included. The university or campus type was left out of the count (5 units classified, 4 confirmed out of 5 checked, below the minimum of 5). The share by network considers networks with 30 or more active units, and 19 networks at risk of namesakes are removed from the named lists but remain in the totals and categories.

Calculated on November 8, 2026. Method version 1.0. Sample: 503 networks, 57,941 active units, 57,941 with an address.

Report an error on this page (in Portuguese)