Fresh Direct Case Study

Although retailers such as Walmart and Target do have loyal customer bases, they are not sitting idle as Amazon and other eCommerce firms obtain a greater market share. They are expanding their online profiles and offering similar shopping experiences. However, they hold one major advantage over Amazon. Every store can serve as a distribution center. Walmart is a perfect example. It has expanded its online profile to provide eCommerce services to its customers (Thau, 2014). Because every store serves as a distribution center, customers can receive their order much faster than Amazon can deliver it.

Whole Foods Market’s first retail location was in Austin, Texas. Today there are 342 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The growth of this health conscious conglomerate happened over the years by strategic acquisitions of profitable independent stores throughout United States. Mackey’s idealism and respect is exhibited in his openness about the contributions of these retailers to the success of WFM, as the website provides an in depth summary of each acquisition and its contribution to promoting healthier food choices (Whole Foods Market History, 2014). After four years in Austin, Texas WFM branched out into the city of Houston when it purchased the Whole Foods Company, and shortly after, on the west coast, a new store was built in Palo Alto, California. Subsequently WFM began aggressive acquisitions over the next few years, which help to accelerate the growth rate of WFM in other geographical locations. In 2002 WFM opened in Canada and in 2004 through the acquisition of United Kingdom’s grocery chain Fresh & Wild, it opened seven stores. Holistic eating is a worldwide affair that WFM is taking advantage

This report serves to analyze the external and internal environment of James Hardie and explain the important of managerial ethics and corporation social responsibility.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the financial health of The Fresh Market and Kroger. The Fresh Market and Kroger focus on selling organic food. The Fresh Market is a 1.7 billion corporation compared to Kroger 108 billion. The information was obtained from the 2014 Balance Sheet and Income Statements for both grocery stores. . There are three different categories of ratios; liquidity, profitability and efficiency. Ratios enable one to not focus on the size of the company, but on the liquidity, profitably and efficiency and the overall financial health of the organization.

One of Trader Joe’s competitive assets is their business model. They open small stores that give their customers a neighborhood feel. Analysts have found that the chain sells almost twice as much per square foot as its main competitor, Whole Foods (INVESTPOEDIA, 2016). This unique strategy allows consumers to view and choose more products in a given area, therefore making them more likely to find what they are searching for. This strategy is sustainable if Trader Joe’s continues to operate in this manner.

With Kroger ranging from a variety of goods, it gives Kroger a wide diversity of strengths for the external environment. Some of the strengths are the fact that Kroger has an online market. Customers can order jewelry, deli and bakery products, floral, and more with the click of a button. This puts them higher up on the competition list for the advanced technology and convenience provided to gain loyal customers. Another strength is that Kroger has stores spanning across thirty five states, which is more than half the nation. This gives the company a wide geographical range in order to compete with surrounding stores. A threat into the external environment would be the competition between supermarkets. The trick is to offer something that large corporations cannot compete with. Kroger is known for its organic line of groceries, called Simple Truth, and its naturally fresh foods and produce. While companies such as Walmart or Costco can offer fresh foods, they are not as focused on the pure organic part. They are more about selling in bulk, and offering discounts, low prices, packaging, and quality. Kroger, on the other hand, can focus more on promoting their organic brands of groceries to attract customers. The natural and organic brand of Simple Truth can factor in Kroger’s opportunities, as Simple Truth is growing, now with over 15,000 organic food items. This allows Kroger to provide a huge variety of food and healthy choices to its customers.

Grocery, Inc. Grocery, Inc. is a retail grocery store chain based in Any State; U.S.A. Grocery has stores throughout the United States. Grocery has written contracts with many different vendors to purchase the products they sell in their stores. Vendors range from individuals to international corporations. Tom works as the produce manager for the store in My Town, U.S.A. Jeff, 17 years old, is spending his summer vacation working for Tom in the produce department.

Trader Joe’s operates over 340 stores in 9 states were they “buy direct from suppliers whenever possible, bargain hard to get the best prices and then pass the savings on to the customer” (Trader Joe’s, 2013, para. 4). Whole Food’s Market is the “world’s leader in natural and organic foods, with more than 360 stores in North America and the United Kingdom” (Whole Food, 2013, para 2). Trader Joe’s and Whole Food’s Market have managed to take original ideas and spread them throughout the nation to many different customers. Although they differ not only in the technique in which they decide to bring products to their customers but also in term of inventory management and supply chain organization. These two companies have become so successful in my opinion, not by what they differ in but what they have most in common, which is their commitment to their loyal customers, employees and undeniable quality in their products they sell. Through their loyalty to their customers and employees in addition to their irreplaceable value

Based out of Long Island City, Queens, FreshDirect was launched in July 2001, by Joseph Fedele and Jason Ackerman. It offers online grocery shopping and delivery service to over 300 zip codes in the Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and surrounding areas. At the time of launch, there had been numerous other online grocery ventures that had ultimately met their demise. What made Fresh Direct unique was that it could offer grocery shoppers: “higher quality at lower prices.” It was able to do so because it had no retail location, which meant there was no rent to pay for retail space. In order to provide its customers with

In 2007, Jeff Bezos decided to ‘attack’ the online grocery delivery business by starting AmazonFresh. He started the business in the neighbourhoods of Seattle and by 2012 had spread to other Seattle communities. From June 2013, AmazonFresh is available in some Los Angeles zip codes.

HelloFresh is a subscription mail order fresh food delivery service. This company provides ingredients for entire meals in refrigerated boxes with recipes, eliminating the need for consumers to grocery shop or meal plan. Also, these meals are properly proportioned to serve a specific number of people. Therefore, fresh ingredients are being used to prepare healthy, well-portioned meals. This concept promotes good eating habits and an appreciation for well-made food.

FreshDirect on-line grocery was founded in 1999, by Joe Fedele, and Jason Ackerman. Started as an on-line option to traditional grocery stores, the company specializes in delivering a wide variety of about 5,000 items. Sales of such things as fruits, vegetables, seafood, prepared entrees and sides, coffee, meat products, deli and cheese products, and bakery items, are just a small part of what the company markets. The company provides same day as well as next-day delivery to

Fresh Direct is a company that allows you to order your food online and get next day delivery, their motto is “Our Food is fresh; our customers are spoiled….. Order on the web today and get next-day delivery of the best food at the best price, exactly the way you want it with 100% satisfaction guaranteed.” The primary business is to allow customers to order their food online and avoid going to a grocery store they can buy anything they want online and you can have it delivered to your house. Key players would be the people who launched the business in 2001 Joseph Fedele and Jason Ackerman. Many companies have fallen online with

Grocery Gateway, founded in 1997 by Bill Nardo, is Canada’s largest direct online grocer and provides its services to residents of the Greater Toronto area (GTA). The company provides approximately 6,500 items including dry goods, health and beauty products, alcoholic beverages, fresh produce and frozen foods on their website www.grocerygateway.com at competitive prices.

FreshDirect was found in 1999 by Jason Ackerman, Steve Druckman and Joe Fedele as an online alternative to traditional grocery stores. The company specializes in delivering a variety of over 3,000 items such as fruits, vegetables, seafood, prepared entrees and sides, coffee, meat products, deli and cheese products, and bakery items (Goldberg, 2010). The company provides same day and next day delivery to over 600,000 customers in New York