Going To Shop At Whole Food Vs Ikea

I am a serious bargain shopper. I try to save wherever I can. That usually means buying products from a mega chain, whose items are usually from outside of the U.S., verses buying from a local “mom and pop” store. The local stores usually have higher prices than most of the larger chain stores. I have never really understood why. For my family, buying all our food locally can be a challenge sometimes. My husband is Asian and he refuses to let go of some of the Asian food items he loves. For example, he has to have bok choy instead of green cabbage from right here. Rice is another issue for us. It has to be jasmine rice from a South East Asian

* IKEA’s low cost structure has been the very core of its success. It’s low-cost and high-quality strategy fits with the current state of the economy. Offering convenience factors within IKEA’s stores would fit well with IKEA’s low cost structure. It maintains its low-cost business model by creating a different furniture shopping experience. IKEA supplies customers with all possible materials needed to complete their shopping when they enter the store (that are, measuring

Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are grocery retailers who have become very successful. Both these companies offer whole, natural, and quality products but operate to a wide extent particularly in terms of inventory management and supply chain organizations. Trader Joe’s has incredible inventory management and their supply chain focuses on private labels and extreme secrecy while Whole Foods has poor inventory management but their supply chain is quick, nimble and versatile. A huge competitive advantage that Whole food has is that they keep their shelves packed with about 25,00 to 45,000 products while Trader Joe’s keeps about 4,000 products. However, Trader Joes’ still made about $1,750 per square foot in 2009, more than double of what Whole

In 1975, Hi-Value Supermarkets became a division of Hall Consolidated, a privately owned wholesale and retail food distributor. In 2002, Hi-Value had sales of $192.2 million, which was the smallest out of the three supermarket chains owned by Hall Consolidated. Although Hi-Value is considered small against industry standards, they were the number one or two ranked supermarket chain in each of its trade markets measured through market share. The primary problem that Hi-Value has developed is that they are the highest priced compared to the competitors within the region. The Hi-Value Supermarket Shopper Interview Results (Exhibit 7 in case) demonstrates this through the question “Liked most about other regular store,” the most popular answer across the board was “Price.” So what is Hi-Value supposed to do?

For our case assignment, we decided to compare two grocery stores popular in the NYC area: Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. We each visited a different location of each store; Samantha visited the Trader Joe’s in Union Square, Heather visited Trader Joe’s on the Upper West Side, Cathleen visited Whole Foods on the Upper West Side, and Brittany visited Whole Foods in Chelsea. Each store had its own dynamic, but the brand positioning for both stores was consistent.

At first glance, these seem to be two companies with similar goals and direction. They sell organic foods and appeal to a certain niche of customer. They both pride themselves on customer satisfaction, but their approach is totally different. Trader Joe’s is mainly focused on providing the best possible product while Whole Foods is deeply involved in Community Social Responsibility. They are both dedicated to supporting local producers and try to purchase only from them if possible. Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods Market have similar appearances but have different mission statements.

Shopping can and should be about more than just price or convenience. Moreover, for high street and main street retailer, concentrating only on price means losing the opportunity to build genuine brand loyalty or give shoppers a reason to enjoy their visit.

4. This will depend on the position that HSM will take. The separates customer ignores quality in preference to the ability to purchase more garments, and might not perceive any difference between HQS and low-quality separates (LQS). Hence, if no action is taken by HSM, the separates customer might still prefer LQS (since it costs lesser than HQS, and enables them to purchase more garments), and HSM will still face significant competitive threat from LQS. Therefore, HSM must be able to differentiate HQS such that the separates customer perceives distinct benefits in HQS as compared to LQS, which also justifies the difference in price. One example would be to market HQS strategically so as to convince the separates customer that higher quality will equate to higher comfort (since separates customer places emphasis on comfort), which justifies the higher prices charged for HQS. Thus, LQS could cater to the separates customer who prefers having the ability to purchase more garments (and hence, sacrificing ‘comfort’), while HQS could cater to the separates customer who does not mind paying a higher price for more ‘comfort’. Hence, if HSM is able to create perceived value for its HQS and communicate this message effectively, it will be able to

IKEA’s strategy towards its suppliers is that of a low production costs strategy. IKEA wants to sell its products at the lowest possible price therefore their

Customer tends to position a brand perceptually, In our respondent’s mind they perceived that IKEA is for people how rent house and who do not have considerable salary.

2. Does ALDI’S low cost strategy imply that the company offers low quality? Why is quality important, regardless of competitive strategy?

The IKEA story began in 1943, published its first advertisement on local newspaper and started mail-order sales service. Furniture is picked up into the business five years later. In 1958, IKEA first establish its first store in Älmhult, Småland. Followed by expanding to Norway in 1963, opening its first store outside Sweden followed by Denmark in 1969. In the 1970s, IKEA stores spread to other states in Europe.

As pointed out in Ikea's mission statement, the company is in business to produce high quality products at a low cost. This would support a

At the outset, it may be useful to characterise IKEA in terms of the characteristics of demand (also known as the four Vs, see Slack et al. p 20). First, IKEA is clearly a high volume operation – as indeed most international retailers are – which lends to systematising operations but which implies capital intensive processes and therefore cost considerations will be crucial. Second, IKEA offers a large number of products (up to 14000 depending on the country/store) so there is high variety in the