Fresh Direct Executive Summary

HelloFresh is an international food company headquartered in Berlin. This company was founded in 2012. Current areas being served by this company are Europe, Australia, and the United States (CrunchBase, n.d.).

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

Fresh Direct is a New York online grocery firm aiming to offer higher quality food with the best price which is 10-15% less than the local competitors and home delivery.

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

The Target Corporation is a general merchandise retailer that opened up in in 1962 under the parent company of Dayton Corporation. This parent company was renamed the Target Corporation in 2000 and are based out of Minneapolis. There are over 1,800 Target stores throughout the United States which includes Targets and Super Targets. In 2005 Target began expansion in India and in 2011 to Canada however this expansion into Canada did not fare well and all Target Canada stores were closed by 2015. According to Forbes in 2005 they we ranked amongst the highest cash-giving companies in America with 2.1% given and they donate about 5% of its pre-tax operating profit. In 2010 Target was ranked number 22 by Fortune magazine’s World's Most Admired Companies.

Moving ahead,in order to get the idea about company’s internal environment and its capacity to survive and prosper in the market(Strategic capability), I analysed the resources and competencies(Appendix 3) ,the value chain (Appendix 3),the Cultural Web(Appendix 5). To find out the influence of stakeholders on the company I applied Power/Interest to the company and finally analysis of strengths,weaknesses ,opportunities and threats to the company(SWOT Analysis-Appendix 7) provide with clear idea about the strategic position of M&S.

Every retail location carries a variety of products that distinguishes it from other stores in the same chain. Not surprisingly, it is difficult to achieve economies of scale. Supply Chain Mackey describes his consumers as being “part of a cult”. Whole Foods believes that the company’s emphasis on perishables and locally-sourced produce differentiates their stores from run-of-the-mill supermarkets and attracts loyal and devoted customers. However, “fresh produce” is one of the most challenging product categories to operate due to limited product shelf life and high cost of spoilage. Whole Foods has tried to circumvent most of the problems inherent in supplying fresh produce to its stores by sourcing locally and having short and flexible supply chains. In the case of fruits and vegetables, Whole Foods has buying relationships with local farmers who supply the store with seasonal produce. Thus, if one farmer is unable to produce a sufficient amount of yellow corn or heirloom tomatoes, the shortfall can be made up by another farmer. Although challenging to perfect, these short supply chains are agile and difficult for other big retailers to duplicate.

Fresh Smoothie is a relatively new product that is the result of 4 years of R&D and testing. There are Fresh Smoothie kiosks in operation in Australia and there will be kiosks in North America

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

The case study is upon on the resource based view. First, the firm resources were divided into three major parts: tangible resource, intangible resource and human resource as Grant suggested. The main body of the essay will also be divided into three parts according to the resource classification. Then, a VRIN test would be carried after listing different types of resources to inspect whether they are able to provide a sustainable competitive advantage for Zara. Finally, Zara’s dynamic capabilities will be discussed to state how Zara used the resources based on their organizational culture.

Both internal and external analysis got the same positive score at +2 which indicate that Managed by Q has strengths on both sides. For the internal part, the company has a unique services and products that Managed by Q offers as Technology was a key part of Q’s offering and this is the way to do business in 21st century. Managed by Q set the company separate and differentiate by providing fully transparent services.

CEO Johnson’s time with JC Penney’s was short lived and only lasted 17 months. The three core processes of business that he ignored was People, Strategy, and Operations. From the people aspect, he missed several key details. Johnson just assumed that people thought JC Penney’s prices were too high, so he lowered them and quit having sells (Tuttle, 2013). He also drove customers that had been shopping there for years away. With too many changes happening at one time, loyal customers did not agree with the changes and started shopping elsewhere.

While Target is effective in their approach to vast market segments like age and gender relation segments, with the increase in technology and social views the need for innovation and change is consistent. Target currently has their clothing products merchandised on racks in stores, with little displays. If Target were to use manikins, differently lighting and product location tablets between sections Consumers would be able to visually see products that they might have not been able to see before. The customers would be able to quickly look up items on the tablet, which is innovative for both age and gender segments. The customer would be able to look up different color schemes, sizes and located them quickly while

Target Corporation is an evolving company. Target has great expectations for its future. For the year 2015, Target aims to expand its experience in order to effectively alter their customer’s expectations and shopping behavior. Target’s industry outlook starts with opening fifteen new stores for the year. The strategic store growth plans focus on localization and customer experience. Target will establish new store formats such as TargetExpress and CityTarget, while also offering new experiences, merchandising layouts and innovations in its general merchandising stores. (Target.com) The retailer’s TargetExpress is the smallest store format at approximately 20,000 square feet and aims to provide customers with effective quick trip shopping experience.

Fresh Direct is a web-based supermarket that delivers fresh produce and meals to customers in New York City metropolitan area. Customers can order prepared meals from the website, www.freshdirect.com. Fresh Direct is in the online grocery store industry.