Menards

Opportunities that Menards have are they have been revamping its old stores to better compete with its rivals. The company is increasing its average store size to more than 220,000 square feet. It opened its largest store in Minnesota and is expanding from 30 to 40 stores in this region. This is larger than an average Home Depot store, which has 102,000 square feet of space. The company has also built two new distribution centers (Howell, 2004). Expansion and remodeling initiatives would improve the company’s competitive position in the home improvement market. Another opportunity for Menards is their testing of an online store for three special order categories: kitchen and bath; lighting and fans; and window treatments. According to CNN Money, online retail spending is up 4.7% from last year. Furthermore, in 2010 71% of online users are likely to shop over the internet as compared to 65% in 2005. Total retail sales will be largely influenced by the internet. The company’s online store would boost revenue growth. (Ellis, 2010)

Wal-Mart is an American multinational retail corporation and one of the leading discount department retail stores (Wikipedia). It is the highest- grossing company in the United States (Fortune 2008a), and is by far one of the most successful companies worldwide. Wal-Mart offers a place to buy the majority of our goods under one roof like electronics, furniture, clothing, pharmacy, sports, food, books etc. Wal-Mart sells good at lower price than the others and this is even shown by its slogan “save money, live better”.  It drives out smaller and sometimes even the expensive stores out of business due to its lower prices. Wal-Mart provides jobs for thousands of

On the other hand, Wal-Mart focused to achieve efficient operations, vertical integrations and high bargaining power, which allowed a low cost approach. The slogan "Always low prices" was realized by Wal-Mart’s ability to deliver high "value for money" to customers across genders. Wal-Mart

In the past, JCP had, on average, one price campaign every day. The stores were full of sale signs and retail rise was getting out of control. JCP partnered with numerous exclusive collaborations which was hoped to bring about an expansion for the firm. However, due to the economic slump, the oversaturation of the market, and an expected lack of quality in the goods from the consumer perspective, JCPenney’s success was degrading in contrast to its competitors. (Sloan, 2010).

Target’s business-level strategy is one that does not strictly focus entirely on one plan to gain a competitive advantage over competition. It encompasses various strategic and meticulous planning and decision making that is implemented in order to position the company at the top of the retail industry. With competition from the likes of Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and Costco, Target uses several clever and “out-of-the-box” ideas to attract consumer attention and ultimately increase market share within the industry. Most of the company’s ideas centered more on the differentiation of products and services provided to customers than lowering prices. For quite some time, the company’s plan was to not compete head-to-head with Wal-Mart in terms of lowering prices but instead to provide their customers, who they identify as “guests”, with a special experience every time they visited a Target location. One idea that was implemented was to market and sell upscale, trendy clothing and unique merchandise at discounted prices.1 This strategy, known as the “cheap-chic” strategy, focused on providing good quality clothing from various well known designers and fancy products from high-profile manufacturers for prices lower than their competition. This plan was vital because it began essentially began the concept of customers referring to Target as “Tar-zhay” which according to Patrick Barwise and Sean Meehan, who are university professors, as a “connote its trendy sensibility”. Target

Chief elements of Costco’s strategy were low prices, limited selection, and a treasure-hunt shopping environment. The ultra-low pricing strategy includes a mark-up capped at 14% and Kirkland, a Costco brand designed to be of equal or better quality than national brands. Product Selection is limited to 4,000 items within a wide variety of categories. Costco does however include ancillary businesses to increase member alternatives. The loss of sales from customers who refuse to purchase large amounts is considered “Intelligent loss of sales.” Treasure-Hunt Merchandising consists of a constantly changing selection of 1,000 luxury items on the floor enticing shoppers to spend more than

This report presents data describing the differences amongst the two department stores, their fundamental visions, and comparative statistics. Macy’s or Dillard’s: Differences amongst these competitors There are several aspects you can analyze from each department store. Major pieces do set each one apart from the other. Brand names carried by Macy’s and Dillard’s from an average shoppers point of view can go completely unnoticed unless price is involved. For trend shoppers brand names can either make or break a retail store. It can easily determine if he or she will walk to Macy’s or Dillard’s because they already know the store does or does not carry that brand. This is consistent with each department throughout both stores and

In 2008, Lowe’s Companies, Inc. have failed to ensure a sustainable safety environment, put in place a health program, and maintain adequate record keeping on work-related injury and illnesses claims for certain locations in the state of Ohio. This employer has been made aware of OSHA requirements for its industry and has been cited many times for similar infractions. OSHA regulators have imposed stiff penalty fines that have cost Lowe’s Companies Inc. thousands of dollars. The record-keeping violations at the

We all know that both Walmart and Macys are two of the most popular stores, they both have different concepts of the customer experience have manage to divide the public right down the middle. Macy’s stores serves high-end clientele, Walmart has more relaxed and price friendly appeal to those of who are in the middle or even low income. Many middle income Americans shop at Walmart primarily because of their low prices, there are shoppers that gathers shop for the quality of Macys. Is just a matter of asking shoppers a question: Why Walmart vs Macys? What is more important quality or quantity for the shopper’s money? Depending at their answer could change the future of each store, and maybe each store could change their perspective towers their shoppers.

Moving onto the income statement portion of the common-size financial statements, an increase in cash and equivalents (3.20% of total assets in 1997 to 5.97% in 2001) and receivables (2.69% of total assets in 1997 to 3.22% in 2001) coupled with a decrease in inventory signify Costco’s improving efficiency over this five year period. It is important to mention two points. First, the decrease in inventory as a percentage of total assets from 30.8% in 1997 to 27.14% in 2001 signifies an increase in the turnover rate, perhaps due to

Design of Goods and Services- Costco can be seen to be in their maturity stages of their life. Therefore, it is recommended for Costco to expand its Pharmacy department by at least 50%.

JCPenney Company, Inc., a public traded company that has its common stocks traded on NYSE market under the ticker symbol “JCP”.

Running Head: DOLLAR GENERAL 1Dollar General StrategiesGlenda ReeseManagerial Marketing BUS 620Professor Mary WrightJuly 8, 2012

I am looking at Topshop for this report. Topshop is a very large British fashion store for young women selling fashion clothes, shoes and accessories. There are Topshop stores throughout the UK. The flagship store in London Oxford Street is the biggest fashion store in Europe. Topshop is part of the Arcadia group which owns other fashion stores such as Miss Selfridge and Warehouse. Topshop mainly sells its own brand products but in larger stores it has concessions of other more expensive similar clothes. As well as selling Topshop clothes in Topshop store, they have concessions in large department stores such as Selfridges. They also have a website where you can buy a lot of the Topshop range including shoes and clothes for

Consumers have certain behavioral tendencies when faced in certain situations. In Why We Buy, the author Paco Underhill details certain behavioral characteristics people tend to have in different types of retail stores. Many consumers don’t think about what their actions mean when checking out or buying products. But to Mr. Underhill, the gender of the person, the people they’re with, the amount of times the person touches an object, the amount of time spent on checking a particular product, the time they came in, and the time they leave, all factor into a database to determine different behavioral trend consumers have. It is these trends that they find in order to correct a problem a store or retailer didn’t know they have to increase sales and create a better flow in the store environment.