Kroger Fixed Cost

When price increases sales decrease because fewer customers feel the product is a good value. Exclusive distribution rights for national manufacturers would help with increased growth and having vendors make unique products specifically for Macy’s would enable shopper loyalty which would also affect the variable costs.

In the United States, the food retail industry is absolutely massive. According to Statista, this industry brings in nearly 5.27 trillion dollars annually and 594.4 billion of that is from grocery store sales. In this market, the 20-ton gorilla in the room is Walmart, racking in nearly 20% of the entire market at around 118 billion dollars in 2013 according to the Harvard Business School case study. Following Walmart, Kroger and Costco own the biggest next largest slices bringing in 76 billion and 71 billion respectively. In this highly competitive market that has some of the smallest margins of any industry it can be tough to get ahead and even tougher to grow. However, Trader Joe’s has managed to pierce what was once a very small world

Operating on very thin profit margins, players in the supermarket industry traditionally either focus on a premium segment or follow a discounter strategy at the low end. Premium players address educated and more price elastic consumers who value healthy, natural and organic food; the share of perishable items for these players is normally distinctly higher. Players that focus on a discounter strategy offer a higher share of simple necessity items and value price competitiveness over premium features like healthiness or organic origin. Independently of the focused customer group it is imperative for players in the supermarket industry to be cost efficient and optimize operations

Home Depot has high fixed costs in running its retail operation. A large number of Home Depot stores exist to meet the needs of consumers wanting the convenient purchase of often large items. The inventory that sits at each store and distribution center is a very high fixed costs that incur (Edmonds & Tsay & Olds). However, this diverse and high inventory level is needed for Home Depot to compete.

Researchers with the RAND Corporation examined data from studies on civilian-based grocery chains as well as previous studies on commissary shoppers. They concluded that because of a combination of factors, including the availability of other stores and the distance many commissary shoppers travel to get there, a price increase would drastically cut the amount of money shoppers spend and the number of times they come to commissary stores. The result would be lower revenue for the commissary and, potentially, continued budget shortfalls (p.

Grocery industry is a highly competitive market with thin profit margins. Super markets are dominant players in the grocery industry. They use grocery offerings to drive traffic to their higher profit margin retail items. With its operations efficiency, Walmart, the largest grocery retailer has been able to offer significant price drops. This also forces other grocery stores to drop prices which keeps the profit margin thin. Even with all the advantages of operational efficiency and economies of scale, Walmart’s share in grocery sales was down at 51% in 2011.

They also decreased the prices of healthy foods to encourage customer to purchase them. Wal-Mart also developed a seal to place on healthier foods with nutrition information rating the levels of sodium, fat, and sugar content (“Paymar Communications”, 2010). The leading factor in Wal-Mart taking this initiative was to reach customers with an interest in a healthy lifestyle. With obesity on the rise across the nation people are becoming more conscious about what they eat and offering healthier foods, organic products, and enhanced labels on the foods will give the customer more options to choose from within the store. By reducing the prices of these healthy products Wal-Mart can increase their customer base, specifically those with an interest in a pursuing a healthy life style. Additionally this will ensure Wal-Mart is leading their competition and could be the benchmark for such companies as Target, K-Mart, Sears, and Costco. The factors influencing the organizations strategies are contingent on the need, not only of the customers, but also Wal-Mart’s increase in sales and profitability. Wal-Mart wants to ensure they not only have healthy customers but also that the organization will garner major gains in sales from these changes. The “Paymar Communications” (2010) website also states that through forging these initiatives, Wal-Mart has figured out a formula to be a good corporate citizen, give consumers superior bargains and still make tons of money; $14.3 billion in

The Kroger Company grew in 128 years from one store to over 3,500 stores of various banners and products. The Kroger Company is the largest food and drug retailer in the United States and is growing constantly with diversity in the retail market, dealing in food, pharmacies, apparel, jewelry and fuel. Kroger is governed by a 14 member Board of Directors including a Chief Executive Officer. Kroger is a leader in Corporate Social responsibility by maintaining environmental consciousness, social awareness and energy conservation awareness. Kroger is committed to customers, builds diversity and focuses on growth. The company operates a large part of it’s own manufacturing and distribution to increase profit

The competition to a chain retail grocery store, such as Kroger, is not limited to other

The Australian Supermarket Industry is the very hot topic that’s why very interesting topic now days. The Australian supermarket and grocery stores have a very severe competition in Australia mainly because of organizations competing in this mature industry are going towards cost reduction initiatives with competing advantage rather than product differentiation strategies, In other words business in this industry increase market share by charging lower prices while making reasonably fair profit. The growing popularity of ALDI – German based company of introducing its own label goods (products manufactured and sold under the retailers own brand) with low cost has forced the two giants –Woolworths and Coles to cut price

Relative importance of fixed costs and variable costs in the retail grocery industry? A key part of knowing how much to produce to be

Stores like Wal-Mart are famous for keeping their prices so low. This is one reason why they are able to maintain a grip on the consumers of an area. They accomplish this by keeping the cost to produce and transport the goods low. In January, a study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. found that, “an individual family could save $589 a year on groceries by shopping at a supercenter. Overall, shoppers could save $3.76 billion in merchandise nationwide.” (Blazier, A, 2004) A major reason they can keep prices lower than mom-and-pop run businesses is their ability to buy merchandise in bulk. Buying in bulk works the same way it does for a consumer. The more of a product that is purchased, the less the cost is per unit. Consumers see this every day when they go to stores like Sam’s Club or Costco. When they buy their merchandise in bulk, they are able to offer it to the consumer at a lower price. (Kale, 2011) This is what could eventually drive the mom-and-pop owned businesses out of the area, and draw a negative criticism from the public. The interesting thing about this criticism is that the public complains about Wal-Mart

Lucia Jenkins (2009), has identified the use of many financial ratios which are helpful in gaining more clear output of a particular company’s or firm’s financial matter. According to him he thinks that variable and fixed costs of the firms are very important. Variable costs are the costs which will increase or decreases in the proportions of the sales (e.g. – Electric bill, rent). Fixed costs are the costs which are fixed, whatever may be the sales the cost will be same (e.g. - rent, salaries,

Option 2: maintain the present price, be content with the current market share, and use the lower-cost edge to earn higher profit margin on each unit sold 4. Concept & Connections 5.1, How Wal-Mart Managed Its Value Chain to Achieve a Huge Low-Cost advantage over Rival Supermarket Chains, describes Wal-Mart’s strategy for out-managing its rivals in efficiently performing various value chain activities to gain a lowcost leadership. A. Achieving Low-Cost Advantage 1. A low cost edge over rivals is best accomplished in two ways: a. performing essential value chain activities more cost-effectively than rivals, and

➢ Fixed costs - with high fixed costs as a percentage of total cost, companies must sell more products to cover those costs, increasing market competition.