Trader Joe's, founded on the idea of unique product offerings at a great price, is amongst the top performers in the supermarket industry. The company utilizes a combination business-level strategy by focusing on both the cost leadership and differentiation strategies. The target customer segment is broad and includes all consumers who purchase grocery items. Although most consumers of Trader Joe’s enjoy the healthy options offered and compare the company to smaller niche supermarkets, any consumer can shop at the various locations. Within this segment, Trader Joe’s utilizes the value of the products as well as unique offerings compared to those available from competitors to set itself apart.
Trader Joe’s has proved themselves to be a tough competitor with their small “fresh and easy” stores and strategies. It’s no wonder that crowds of people line up in the middle of the night waiting for Trader Joe’s in their local areas to open for the first time. Trader Joe’s faces many competitors, but these competitors like Walmart, Amazon, Tesco, and others find it very difficult to imitate Trader Joe’s strategies and business processes. Reasons for this include: their dedication to their employees and their small, low-stocked stores with items that are not typically found at supermarkets.
Introduction of Big Fresh- An achievement Big Fresh is not an average supermarket. With the upcoming of popular brand Big Fresh the team starts delivering freshest fruits and vegetables. It also introduced the friendliest service and provides exciting, diverting, clean as well as safe environment.
Because of the high availability of substitute products and the cheaper prices of these products, Whole Foods Market experiences a strong force from substitutes. There is a high possibility for customers to move back to high-quality non-organic food corresponds to the low switching cost. (Strategic direction: to focus on product quality; also necessary to offer
Walmart helps people can save money and live better. Mike Duke announced a plan to reduce salt, fat and sugar in produce. This plan helps for health of people. Moreover, the best thing of Walmart is lower prices on almost produce. Recently, Mike Duke has been promising strides to benefit consumers.
As previously stated the organic segment is growing at a steady pace, and in some cases, faster than producers can manage. WF has maintained a consistent record of store openings every year even during the recession. Trader Joes, Fresh Marker, and even Sprouts have been making significant expansions in store numbers to meet demand for organic and natural products inside and outside of their established markets. Additionally, if a newcomer were to open a store with a successful market strategy, the owners could expect to earn attractive profits despite price points 40% over conventions
Alternatives Solutions FreshDirect should position everyday Price Optimization to manage pricing on an ongoing basis to enable fairly high gross profit margin targets. Our three alternative solutions and strategies for FreshDirect are overall cost leadership, differentiations and focus. These alternatives will directly solve the key issues we found in the article. FreshDirect should use TV, magazine, and newspaper to market its company’s brand.
To deal with competitors, Whole Food’s implemented a strategy of lowering prices, apart from closing stores and pausing their plans of potential expansion. The company also wants to focus on their brand “365 by Whole Foods”. The prices for “365” products have also been reduced. The company explained this reduction of prices by stating that they don’t want to create a big gap between their prices and prices of their main competitors. Whole Foods should, therefore, maximize short-term profits while keeping its original quality.
Last Saturday I drove to Walmart which took 10 minutes. The reason I went was to create a fascinating research on the variety of food choices Walmart have. Upon entering the building I could see that they have a wide variety of food like; Dairy, snacks, meat and poultry, seasonings, fruits and vegetables, bakery, dry packaged goods, drinks, frozen foods, and organic foods. They also had perishable goods and non-perishable goods. Some of the perishable goods include; dairy and meat and poultry.
At present, there is no other chain supermarket that can compete with Wegmans. The interior of each Wegmans’ store is equivalent to 8-10 other supermarkets. According to Ferdman (2015), “The produce department by itself in Wegmans’ stores is twice as big as the total supermarket store volume of its average competitors in the U.S.” (para. 7). One thing that sets Wegmans apart from its average competitors is its 360-degree competition. For example, “Wegmans can compete with Whole Foods, because its produce is some of the freshest in the business; it can compete with Trader Joes, because its prices are some of the most reasonable; and it can complete with Wal-Mart” (Ferdman, 2015, para.
Save-A-Lot is a discount grocery store aimed to maintain quality food at low prices, beginning with one store founded by Bill Moran in 1977, and now with over 1.300 stores country-wide. With the closing of other local discount grocery stores like Bottom Dollar and Good Cents, Save-A-Lot’s main competitor is ALDI’s. Since I am a frequent shopper of ALDI’s for discounts, I decided that I wanted to see what the local Save-A-Lot had to offer to the public. Upon first examination, Save-A-Lot opens up like any other standard grocery store, with the produce selection first and bright colors popping. The stores proceeds to showcase their “Special Buys,” which was a continuous selection of overstocked goods of various types opposite of the produce.
Regarding to Nam (2012, p.3), “The shareholder approach” focuses on responsibility over profitability. The satisfaction among stakeholders, not only shareholders, will determine the success of company. Service industry such as Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe's prove this approach in order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage and get better return in a long run version. For the Whole Food Company (WFC), “fresh product” is the product categories that is most challenging to manage due to the limited product shelf life and high cost of spoilage (Nam, 2012, p.84). Whole Foods tries to solve this problem by get the supply for the fresh product which is sourcing locally and focus on short and flexible supply chains.
For example, supermarkets and large grocery chains have begun to take notice. British supermarket chain Waitrose is one of the many grocery chains promoting its local food sourcing. At present, more than 2500 local products from 600 local suppliers are available in branches throughout the country. Waitrose initiatives like 'Meet the Buyer' and 'Meet the Farmer' (which introduces customers to local producers) and the Waitrose Small Producers Awards, launched five years ago, continue to champion the work of small producers across the country and promote local food (Igd.com, 2008). This is due to the fact that customers are becoming increasingly interested in the provenance, quality and traceability of produce they are buying.
Food retailing is a large, intensely competitive industry. With the incursion of traditional grocery chains (Safeway and Kroger) and retail giant Wal-Mart into the natural and organic food space and fast-growing natural foods chains, such as Sprouts Farmers Market, adding stores, Whole Foods will be facing a more mature and crowded retail market going forward. In addition, an increasing number of organic and health food retailers are starting to offer lower prices, which could shift consumers away from Whole Foods. Responding to the defection of shoppers to lower-priced chains during the financial crisis, Whole Foods is working hard to emphasize its value proposition and shed its pricey image as "Whole Paycheck. " The company also faces the
It also helps ensure that Whole Foods has the freshest and most organic produce possible to sell in their
