Local pack — the map and the short list of businesses Google shows above the ordinary results for a search with local intent.
Still the highest-intent surface there is
Someone searching for a category and a city is not researching. They are shortlisting. The pack is where that shortlist gets made, and it is three names long. There is no page two of a local pack in any sense that matters.
It also has an effect beyond itself. The businesses that appear there accumulate the reviews, the profile completeness and the general prominence that other systems then read as evidence. Winning the pack makes the rest easier; losing it makes the rest harder.
What decides it
Google’s stated answer is relevance, distance and prominence. Distance is the part nobody can optimise away, which is why a single rank number for a whole city is close to meaningless — see rank grid.
Source: Google Business Profile Help, improve your local ranking on Google.
Related: Google Business Profile, rank grid, AI Overviews.