Costco and Sam's Club Introduction There are so many stores where people can get their groceries and basic needs. Where do you get your groceries from? Out of all the stores Costco and Sam's Club are the mainstream ones with a variety of products. Costco and Sam's Club share many similarities and differences when it comes to their membership, environment/food court, and customer service/experience. Membership Costco and Sam's Club both offer memberships and to shop in the stores or online you must have a membership.
In her essay, “In Praise of Chain Stores”, Virginia Postrel hails the progressiveness of chain stores and counters arguments made against them. As a frequent shopper in my city, I have experienced the benefits of chain stores and how they affect the locals that shop in them. I believe that chain stores have not turned Augusta into a boring city because they are familiar even to those new to the area, they have a high standard of quality and service, and provide fair fixed prices. First, Postrel quotes Thomas Friedman in her essay, stating that “…America is mind numbingly monotonous- the most boring country to tour; because ‘everywhere looks like everwhere else…’ the familiarity of a Walmart to someone new to Augusta may be a relief,
1. In the broader context (not specific to Dollar General), what is KKR’s investment strategy? What are the challenges KKR will encounter to make its investment in Dollar General successful? How could KKR add value to Dollar General?
Costco’s business model is centered around offering a smaller range of products at incredibly low prices which attracts the consumer. In order to supplement this lowered profit margin, they require their shoppers, both businesses and individuals, to purchase annual memberships. The membership fee accounts for a majority of the company’s profit. Furthermore, Costco operates its under a wholesale warehouse style which eliminates the need for excess handling and workers in the store. The stores are stocked to carry certain big ticket, ‘limited time offer’ goods so that customers feel the need to take advantage of the deal because it may not be there when they next return.
Key Trends – Globalisation One of the main opportunities Costco has is more global expansion to specific targeted countries. Although operating in many countries, Costco is heavily dependent on the U.S. and Canadian markets. It still has the opportunity to expand into the Asian and Australian markets where it has a limited presence. Costco has the capability to operate about 100 stores in Taiwan, Korea and Japan combined and about 20 stores in Australia. It currently has 41 stores in Taiwan, Korea and Japan combined and 6 stores in Australia.
Walmart stores is one of the largest retailers not only in the United States but across the world. They hold tremendous power from a retail level and on a political level with governments in the US and outside. Ratios help create Walmart as a company and allows investors to be able to gauge and understand the metrics of the organization. These metrics and ratios help investors understand the specific direction of the company and the effectiveness of executive leadership. The primary ratio that must be understood regarding Walmart's earnings-per-share is the price earnings ratio.
Specifically, Ralph’s (similar stores are Vons and Albertson’s) and Whole Foods (similar stores are Gelson’s and Trader Joes) are two firms that utilize cost leadership and differentiation. On one hand, we have Ralph’s using cost differentiation by providing a broad range of merchandise at a decent price. On the other hand, we have Whole Foods that has implemented a differentiation strategy by marketing their merchandise as healthier (organic). The trade of for both companies is that they are attracting less consumers by just marketing to a specific crowed. For instance, if Whole Foods had lowered their price and still sold premium merchandise, soon Ralph’s would be in trouble.
For the business-level, Trader Joe’s adopted a differentiation focus strategy. According to our textbook with this strategy, Trader Joe’s seeks to differentiate in its target market. They rely on providing better service than broad-based competitors. Specifically, they focus on the special needs of the buyer in other segments (Dess, Page 159). Joe’s differentiates its self from other grocers by providing a unique shopping experience fortified with their private label goods and great service from their crew members.
Segment 1 – Wal-Mart’s Revolutionary Power 1. How much was Wal-Mart’s sales figure quoted in the beginning of the segment? Wal-Mart recorded $256 Billion in sales and is the first company in the world to record such a figure on sales. 2. How many Americans stream into Wal-Mart on a weekly basis?
Introduction The power and utility of the internet is common knowledge to literate people. It has fundamentally shifted the economic land scape to such an extent that its era is dubbed the new economy (Turban et e, 2011l). At the heart of this new economy is e-commerce. E-commerce is simply doing business online. Amongst the companies at the pinnacle of the new economy and more specifically e-commerce is Amazon.
Amazon’s competitive strategy is cost leadership. Amazon has achieved a lot on a great scale that it gets the best prices from its vendors so they can operate in very flexible and thin margins and sell their items easily at retail prices and make money. They also provide shipping products for a reasonable cheap price. They also have improved their warehouses by giving some space to other sellers who want to sell their items through Amazon. They differentiate and provide better quality than their competitors across the industry.
The company also uses broad differentiation as a supporting strategy. This secondary strategy involves developing the business and its products to make them distinct from competitors. McDonald’s applies the broad differentiation strategy in one of their product line. For example, McDonald’s introduce the McCafé products line, in this strategy McDonald enables to get customer during off peak hours. Vertical integration is also one of the strategic objective linked to McDonald’s cost-leadership strategy.
3.0 Concepts 3.1 Resources and Capabilities In order to achieve and sustain competitive advantage, a business needs both resources and capabilities. Resources are assets that are owned or employed by an organization. The organization utilizes and uses these assets to carry out their business operations. Resources can be grouped either tangible assets or intangible assets.
Introduction The company selected for this research is McDonald’s Australia Holdings, a patented public company in Australia. The company specializes in food and beverage products such as burgers, coffee, sandwiches, McCafe beverages, and soft drinks, among others. The primary activity of the company, which generates most of its revenues from food and beverage services, entails establishing and operating a chain of family restaurants that offer quick services throughout Australia. While the company owns and runs a smaller number of the McDonald’s Australia Holdings’ restaurants, a larger number of the restaurants is owned and ran by franchisees, who shell out the company’s service fees and rent (Buchan, 2012). The 2013 annual revenue of the
If a differentiation strategy is successfully implemented the firm will be able to do one of the following: command a premium price for its products, increase unit sales, and/or gain buyer loyalty to its brand. Starbucks has some of the highest prices for the type of products they offer and people tend to be extremely loyal to whatever coffee they are used to purchasing, because they trust the
