Smartmart Executive Summary

There are large and small businesses all across the country, with many different public and private accounting firms that handle their accounts. Many of these businesses are raking in millions and millions of dollars a year. Wal-Mart is one of them. We will be exploring Wal-Mart and how it came about as a business, along with examining their balance sheets, income statement, and the cash flow statement. We will also be taking a look at what Wal-Mart’s current revenues are over the annual reporting periods, and who handles their accounting process.

The organic food industry has seen a huge spike in growth that is expected to continue into the future due to an increase in consumption. This will provide Whole Foods Market with huge opportunities. In addition, a wave of ethical and responsible consumption has swept across America. Whole Foods’ decision to pursue sustainable activities will certainly give consumers an added incentive to purchase its organic products.

Whole Foods Market is probably the world leader in retailing natural and organic foods, with over 433 stores in North America and the United Kingdom (Whole Foodsmarket.com). With a commitment to provide the highest quality of natural and organic foods at competitive prices; they steadily continue to expand globally. This paper will provide some insight on the advantages and disadvantages of perhaps why we should invest in this company’s stock.

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.

There are regulatory bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the Food

Many people don’t realize that only five corporations control early 42 percent of combined USA grocery sales. These corporations stomp over the little man and out thousands of people out of jobs every year- around 20,000. By purchasing your produce from companies such as Walmart you are taking away the jobs of local farmers in your community. Unemployment has become a sad fate for most farmers since major corporations have gained control. The economy suffers when jobs are lost. By supporting locally grown products, you are also supporting the jobs and families of those farmers who produce your products. Also, you are supporting a better economy as more jobs are being made which leads to more money being recycled back into the system. I have now come to realize how important it is to purchase from local companies and farmer’s markets and believe that I will make my purchases there as much as I possibly can.

In this case, the company has the ability to show social responsibility in bringing healthier products into its stores and have the added benefit that these items are high-margin, delivering profit opportunities to company shareholders. Because the items are high-margin, the costs of purchasing a reasonable supply and variety of items is relatively low as compared to lower margin items that are most likely currently stocked in each store. The company even has an opportunity to reduce costs in the stores purchases by eliminating similar products that are lower in margin to the ones that they will be bringing in based on customer requests. Promotion of the social responsibility plan is important. With no additional cost in advertising, company Q can promote these new healthy products in its advertising. Doing so can bring back some of their lost business as well as bring in new customers to the stores. This situation is a win not only for Company Q but is also a win for customers and employees. The additional profits from higher-margin items will assist the company in creating wages that are appropriate for each position and opportunities for advancement in pay and position for its employees. This can help create an atmosphere that retains employees and reduces turnover, consequently, reducing the costs of obtaining and training new employees on a regular basis.

Whole Foods is a retailer that specializes in organic foods and it has done an excellent job of determining its target market and how to position itself. Instead of going head to head with large food retailers such as Wal-Mart, Whole Foods has found a niche market that works perfectly for itself. This niche market is one that prides itself on being health conscious and environmentally responsible and Whole Foods has done a great job of positioning itself in the same way through its environmentally safe actions and its use of the local community to stock its stores. However, as Whole Foods grows and expands, a person has to wonder if the company will be able to maintain this same position or will have to make

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.

hospitals that can better shoulder losses as part of an overall marketing strategy focused on access to care (Chain Drug Review, 2011).

Whole Foods will need to research and figure out marketing strategies to keep the customers loyal to Whole Foods. One of the main reasons customers will go to different supermarkets that have organic foods is because of the different department stores inside the grocery market. For instance, some grocery stores sell organic vegetables, but also have regular vegetables. Some of the larger grocery stores have banks, photo stores, insurance companies that make your stop at the larger grocery store

This paper will give a summary of Target corporation versus Wal-Mart stores, Incorporated. In the following weeks it will compare the financial performances of these two companies, by evaluating circumstances such as the times interest earned, return on equity, return on assets and other factors. This paper will present an overview of the exchanges on which both company’s stock is traded. It will also present characteristics of that particular exchange which may have led the company to be listed there versus another exchange. This summary will also explain the types of securities both Wal-Mart and Target have outstanding, such as the bonds, preferred stock or the common

SmartMart is a grocery store that has found its core differentiation in providing organic food to its customers. Due to changes in the market environment, SmartMart has had to rethink its strategies and has identified three scenarios. The first is the store size conundrum due to the recent arrival of low-cost competitors such as Big-Box Mart and new market entrants such as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). The management has arrived at three strategies to address the problem, namely expand to Big-Box Mart scale, become a niche player or stick to the current store concept. The second scenario is tapping the biofuel opportunity for which three strategies have been identified, namely alliance, acquisition and organic growth. The third scenario is pursuing Organics 2.0 for which three strategies were identified, namely improving the supply chain to increase standards, to distribute high yield seeds to farmers and to work with government agencies and FDA to acquire a label for Organics 2.0.

All these strategies can be adopted in order to compete with Organic Foods but it all amount to expenses. Since it wants to compete, the operating expenses will then increase; as such revenue will also decrease or increase depending on several factors. If that happens maintaining a profit margin of 24% cannot be achieved in the short term but it can outweigh its competitors in the long run. As you know food for life is maintaining a profit margin of 24% already, and there is no information regarding its investment plans.

The business venture is called “Organics For All”. The opportunity is around need to cater to organic vegetable & fruits demand to larger segment of consumers. Currently organic produce is considered to be very expensive and sparsely available in the market. There are valid reasons why price points are very high. In general a normal middle class / upper middle class consumer rely on highly unorganized market to buy vegetables. Organized retail sector has recently started catching up. Organic vegetable and fruits supply is a niche segment and usually is available via both organized retails and unorganized sectors depending on geographic area and market potential. It is apparent from market share that organic vegetable and fruits occupy very