Kroger

Whole Foods Market has received recognition as recent as January 27th 2011 when CNBC aired Supermarkets Inc: Inside a 500 Billion Money Machine. “Whole Foods is arguably the most influential, and by some measures, the most successful supermarket chain in the world. The specialty gourmet store has grown into a Fortune-300 company offering specialty foods and locally grown organic produce.1” CNBC goes on to state that even “Established brands like Safeway, Giant Eagle and Kroger are cultural icons as familiar as our own street names, but they are under constant attack from brilliant upstarts like Whole Foods…1” From the general supermarket industry Whole Foods Market breaks down into even a smaller specific

A Point of Sale (POS) system is a system to manage the retail terminals and goods. POS system is a products combined by the software and hardware to deal with payment activities and to manage the functional information of retail, including sales tracking, storage management, security, accounting and customers’ information management.

In 1883, Bernard Kroger, who is Kroger Company’s owner, opened the Great Western Tea Company in Cincinnati when he was 22. In 1902, the company became Kroger Grocery and Baking Company after growing to 40 stores in different cities like Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. The company continued growing thorough buying smaller, cash-strapped companies. Moreover, in the late 1920s, the company gained Piggly Wiggly stores, and in early 1940s, the company bought most of the Piggly Wiggly stock. In 1929, the chain reached its greatest number of stores which is 5,575. The company continued buying other stores. After that, the company started opening bigger stores in 1971. In 1987, Kroger sold most of its interests in the Hook and SupeRx drug chains and started focusing on its food and drug stores. Furthermore, Kroger announced that it was purchasing around 75 store (mostly in Texas). Not only Kroger was buying food stores in Texas, but also in Virginia, Nebraska, and New Mexico, which happened around 2000 and 2001. In 2003, Kroger announced Naturally preferred, its own brad products which include baby food, pastas, cereal, snacks, milk, and soy products (Company History-Hoover’s, 2016).

According to the Kroger business web page, in 1883 Barney Kroger invested his life savings of $372 to open a grocery store at 66 Pearl in downtown Cincinnati. The son of a merchant, he ran his business with a simple motto: Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself. It is a motto that has served him well for the next 120 years. Today, Kroger has grown to 2500 stores with $70 billion revenues, 40 food processing plants ranging from bread, milk, soda pop, ice cream and peanut butter. Kroger operates under two dozen banners, has acquired warehouses, trucking companies, and has over 14,400 private-label items (The Kroger Co., 2012).

Kroger is the store many of us go to and it has been around for a very long time. Kroger first opened in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1883 by a man named Bernard Kroger. When it was first opened, it was not called Kroger it was called The Great Western Tea Co. Now, Kroger is probably one of the few places you go weekly because you need food. People get points when they shop at Kroger and then they use those points to save money on the gas. A certain amount of points get a dollar or less off gas. Kroger is found in advertisements on billboards, magazines and even on television. These are for reminding people who are watching television that they need to get out and get their groceries.

The Kroger Company uses the broad differentiation strategy. They have business in at least eight different market segments. They operate two thousand, two hundred and fifty-five stores across America and operate under twenty four banners. Their market position ranks among the highest in the nation. They also have a strong bargaining power because of their many endeavors into different market areas. Kroger supermarkets have been in business for one hundred thirty four years and have made a substantial contribution to the business world (Annual report, 2017).

Joe Coulombe started Trader Joe’s in 1967. Traded Joe’s can be characterized as a low cost, high quality grocery store. Eighty percent private label product mix, expanding its target markets, keeping costs down, and extremely effective marketing powers Trader Joe’s increase popularity. Since 2002, the market value of private food label has risen twelve percent (Datamonitor, 2008). This essay

In 1883 Bernard (Barney) Kroger invested 372 dollars that consisted of his life savings to open the first ‘Kroger’ grocery. That first store, located at 66 Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati, would soon turn into the giant retail chain that consists of nearly 2,500 stores all over the country and most recently produced sales of over 76 billion dollars. Barney Kroger was revolutionary in the formation of the modern grocery, in that he was the first grocer to have his own bakery, as well as selling meat and other groceries all under one roof. Kroger was also the first to manufacture the products that he in turn sold in his own store. This was the beginning of what is today one of the largest food manufacturing companies in America.

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 grocery industry is known for slim margins and intense competition. Individual stores balance on the razor’s edge because small changes in sales have large effects on the balance sheet. “Green” grocers, typified by Whole Foods, appear to escape some of this intense competition. The following analysis will compare Safeway, a more typical grocer, to Whole Foods, arguably the originator of the boutique green grocery store. Analysis of Safeway’s 10-Ks reveals a company attempting to reinvent

This case involves a mid-sized, regional grocery store chain called Reed Supermarkets. Reed has 192 retail stores, two regional distribution centers and 21,000 employees in five states in the Midwest of the United States. This case discusses Reed’s market strategy for the Columbus, Ohio, market in particular, which is one of Reed’s largest markets. The Columbus market has grown slightly over the past five years, while Reed’s market share has dwindled slightly in the market. Reed has watched their market share stagnate with the entrance of new competitors (10% growth in stores) and a dramatic shift in customer preferences to value or

At the present time, information technology changes fast, and most companies has built their own websites, online shops, and databases to help them to increase their sales from online customers. They collect information and analyse their customers to know their customers ' needs and wants. Therefore, M&S has invested its information technology, such as online shop in 1999. In addition, most stores in the UK and Western Europe were running a trial of the EPOS (Electronic Point Of Sale)[3] systems. M&S has also used this system to drive sales, increase customer service, and improve its efficiency (Yorwerth, 2001).

Kroger Company (NYSE: KR) was founded in 1883 by Bernard Kroger and is one of the largest grocery retailers and the second largest private employer in the United States. Headquartered in Cincinatti Ohio, Kroger employs over four hundred and forty-three thousand employees in the United States [1]. Since their founding in 1883, on Bernard's initial investment of $372, Kroger Company has expanded to over two thousand eight hundred locations and possesses annual revenues of over one hundred and fifteen billion dollars [1]. Bernard Kroger was not afraid to think outside the box and provide products in a way that other grocery stores were not. In order to offer customers a better value for their money, Bernard Kroger began to manufacture his own products, including bread and sour kraut. The decision to create products effectively made Kroger Company the first grocer to utilize private label products and have an in-house bakery. Bernard Kroger continually sought out ways to further increase his profits by creating more of his products in house. According to Kroger's website, this manufacturing process initially bolstered to increase profits, became the backbone of what is today one of the largest manufacturing operations in the United States [1].

In recent years, due to the change of own profit model, high inflation, increasing operating costs and competition from online commerce, traditional retail businesses have grown slowly in China. Chinese retail business, especially supermarkets need to be transformed and updated. Developing private label brands is one of the most efficient ways to realise supermarkets ' transition and updating, it could reduce costs and improve supply chain system. However, the development of supermarket private label in China is only in start-up stage now which leaves plenty of scope to learn from mistakes and successes from other businesses. The British retail market is the second largest in Europe, and has the highest profit margins in the world. Its supermarket private label has developed into a mature stage (Zhen, 2007). Since there are limited studies in the area of analysing the gap between British and Chinese supermarket in developing private label, this study will help to stop the gap in literature study of comparing the development of private label between China and UK. In addition, it may predict the future developing trend of Chinese private label and benefit Chinese supermarket managers on how to introduce more successful strategies of private label products in further development on the basis of British experience.

This chapter sets out the background to the electronic point of sale application and explains its importance.