Find the nearest store to every customer

For every point in one layer, find the nearest thing in another, and copy its name and the distance across. That is a nearest join.

Customers to their nearest store, schools to their nearest hospital, houses to their nearest bus stop: the same question every time.

The nearest store in a straight line is not always the quickest to reach. A river or a motorway between them can make another one closer by road.

For planning and a first look, straight-line nearest is quick and usually right. For delivery times, check the close calls with a route planner.

Join columns by nearest in the Process tools takes points as its first layer and anything as the second: points, lines or areas. A point inside an area is 0 away from it.

Shortest lines draws the line from each point to its nearest shape, with its length, so you can see the answer on the map.

Turn the question round: for every spot on the map, which store is nearest? The answer splits the map into one area per store, called Voronoi areas.

They are a quick way to see catchments, and to spot a gap where a new store would take the most customers.