Critical Analysis 1

Cleaning up down South: supermarkets, ethical trade and African horticulture is a piece by Susanne Freidberg published in Social and Cultural Geography journal in 2003 (Freidberg, 2003). Susanne Friedberg holds PhD from UC Berkely and is a Professor of Geography in Darmouth College, New Hampshire (“Susanne Freidberg,” n.d.). In the article the author argues that the ethical standards have become fetishised. The UK supermarkets compliance with such standards edges on paranoia. It does not mean that the supermarkets care about these standards from moral point of view but that the compliance is driven by fear of bad

A host of internal and external factors plays an important role in the organizational structure and process. The opportunities for Best Buy are economies of scale, targeting new market segmentation and global expansion. Strong competition, growth in online sales and the new developments in government regulation are the threat for the Best Buy. Competitions in the electronics industry are based on several factors such as price, quality, durability, product features, customer preferences and warranties. With the advancement in the ecommerce and internet, Best Buy acquired many internet

Best Buy is a multinational retailer of consumer electronics, computing and mobile phone products, entertainment products, appliances, and related services. The company operates retail stores and call centers and conducts online retail operations under a variety of brand names such as Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, The Carphone Warehouse, Five Star, Future Shop, Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and The Phone House (Bestbuy.com, 4). The domestic segment consists of all operations within the United States, while the international segment includes all operations in Canada, Europe, Mexico, and China. The Best Buy 's success is contingent on the market 's demand for electronics. The company 's strategy is to provide good customer service combined with lower prices (news.cnet.com). Best Buy 's success is directly related to economic conditions, the cost of goods, and other things like fuel prices. The company 's strategy depends upon the ability to offer customers a broad selection of name-brand products; therefore, leading its success to depend upon satisfactory supplier relationships (Bestbuy.com, 8). Best Buy, as it is included in the retail segment, is a seasonal store. Their stronger quarter is the fourth quarter, which they can contribute to the holiday season for their success.

Best Buy’s mission statement is “our formula is simple: we’re a growth company focused on better solving the unmet needs of our customers – and we rely on our employees to solve those puzzles” (bestbuy.com). The company has an objective to to provide the best technological products and service solutions to customers throughout its markets. Best also has as an objective to provide expert services to customers at prices that are described as unbeatable. The objectives also include the company having sustainable growth and earnings. The company marketing the products that is based on an operating model that is considered as customer centricity achieves the sustained growth and earnings. Best Buy uses a strategy that focuses on helping customers to be able to realize what they needed to stay connected with technology and the products that are desired. The company also spends time monitoring the needs of its customers, which

Best Buy Co., Inc. is currently the world’s largest retailer for consumer electronics. The company has 1,400 brick and mortar stores and is a popular online retailer as well. The stores serve as display room for various online retailers. Best Buy consumers can purchase electronic products such as mobile, corded and cordless phones, televisions, cameras, personal computers, laptops, appliances and more (David & F.R., 2015). Today’s society relies on convenience and technology, forcing companies to implement new ideas and projects in an effort to maintain their ability to compete with other companies. For continued success the company must look at the internal and external issues the company may face as well as their competitors and their best practices that are contributing to their success.

These changes were necessary with the growing instability in Europe and with the ever changing economy in China so in the meantime “Best Buy has decided to explore more profitable growth options for the Best Buy brand in these markets, including the option to reopen two of the closed stores in China at a later date”.()

The consumer electronics giant, Best Buy, was first established in 1966 with a single location and a staff of three in St. Paul, Minnesota, selling audio equipment targeted at 18-25 year old males. Initially Sound of Music/Best Buy grew through acquisition, expanding to nine locations in the Twin Cities area by 1978. The name, Best Buy, and expanded product line, ranging from audio and video equipment to large appliances, were a result of a “best buy” sale of damaged inventory at bargain prices in 1981. In the mid-1980s, Best Buy launched superstores similar to those of their main competitor, Circuit City and expanded by 15 stores between 1985-86. In 1989, Best Buy launched itself as a

While the case analysis shows Best Buy has had success with the customer-centric model, care should be taken if the company continues expanding. Anderson’s gamble of building more stores to offset the declining profits of established stores has worked, however this model of business is not sustainable. If Best Buy continues to expand, the company should look at opening more stores in foreign markets with its “centrized” approach

The retail industry is highly competitive, with few barriers to entry. Each Company competes with many other local, regional and national retailers for customers, associates, locations, merchandise, services and other important aspects of the Company’s business. Those competitors include other department stores, discounters, home furnishing stores, specialty retailers, wholesale clubs, direct-to-consumer businesses and other forms of retail commerce. Some competitors are larger than JCPenney, have greater financial resources available to them, and, as a result, may be able to devote greater resources to sourcing, promoting and selling their products.” There are many factors that characterize competition, including advertising, service,

I think the strongest part of this analysis was how concise and direct it is. You start with an introduction that clearly states your purpose, main point, and what description you are analyzing. This lets the reader know exactly what they will be reading and how it will be formatted.

ALDI is a global food retailer. Since opening its first store in 1913, Aldi has established itself as a reputable retailer operating in international markets including Germany, Australia and the U.S. Aldi has over 7,000 stores worldwide. What distinguishes Aldi from its competitors is its competitive pricing strategy without reducing the quality of its products. In fact, in some cases Aldi’s products are 30% cheaper than those offered by its competitors. Aldi can do this because the business operates so efficiently. (The Times Case Studies, 2011)

Critical theory refers to expose institutional and cultural hegemony in society deformity manufacturing and duplication, enlightenment human consciousness, awareness and ability to resist, in order to obtain freedom, liberation theory. Among them, the hegemony that privileged groups to exercise power through a variety of institutions, especially political, judicial and education systems, to safeguard their way to dominance of other groups.

It makes sense for Best Buy to worry more about Wal-Mart, which is getting more involved in electronics retailing, and less about Circuit City. The competitors are a diverse lot today, and for them to continue to grow they're going to have to get much better at everything they do and define themselves in clear ways. Best Buy's plan is to revamp its stores according to the types of customers they serve. A strategy previously mentioned, customer centricity, focuses on targeting five prototypical customers, all of whom have been given names: "Jill," a busy suburban mom; "Buzz," a focused, active younger male; "Ray," a family man who likes his technology practical; "BB4B" (short for Best Buy for Business), a small professional employer; and "Barry," an affluent professional male who's likely to drop tens of thousands of dollars on a home theater system. Their most current focus is on a "Jill" based store, the soccer mom who has money to spend but typically hasn't a clue of where or how to find products in the store. According to the data Best Buy has collected, Jill shops a few times a year, usually twice at an electronics store, but she usually spends a significant amount.

Best Buy is a company that is a financially strong and profitable, that has generated a good few billion in cash flows from operating activities as is shown in its financial statements. They also delivered positive operating income through their trajectory. They grew total market share in the third quarter according to the most recent public data available. They have closed down certain operations that were not profitable (according to recent reports), which they expect to have a positive impact on their earnings going forward. And they are focusing the company on areas where they see the greatest opportunities for growth and profit: mobile devices and connection plans; enhanced digital and e-commerce strategies; growth in their services business; and expansion of their established business in China.

To begin with, Best Buy focused on cost cutting measure and elimination of redundancy which resulted in a reduction of $1B in annualised expenses and significantly reducing administrative and corporate expenses. The first significant cuts the company made were at their headquarters: eliminating private jets privileges, NASCAR sponsorships, and Super Bowl advertisements. Several layers of management were eliminated and many support employees were made redundant, such as cooks in the corporate kitchen, with a total layoff of around 2,000 jobs. The company not only focused on big ticket item reduction but also targeted small items: "I don’t need you to go find the million-dollar idea – I’d love for you to go find the $10,000 idea,” said Corie Barry, chief strategic growth officer (Jen Wieczner, Fortune). In addition, Best Buy revamped its inventory management system, optimizing the efficiency of their inventory seeing major improvement in its days inventory outstand and inventory turnover ratio. Furthermore, in 2015, Best Buy introduced a three-year plan to reduce annual spending