Google is testing hiding the local pack within a locations tab that expands when you tap on it or the arrow down. When it expands, it shows you the full local pack listings.
Otherwise, it is tucked away in this “Locations” menu to be scrolled past by searchers.
Here is a GIF of it in action from Khushal Bherwani on Twitter:
I doubt Google will do this by default, but maybe Google will do this for queries that may not have 100% local intent for it. So maybe in this case, searching for [Tesla], maybe a nice percentage of searchers don’t want to find a local Tesla store but rather learn about the company, the car, the stock, or the man buying Twitter. 🙂
Forum discussion at Twitter.
