Th Broker Joe's Monopolistic Rivalry Business Structure

Trader Joe’s is a major food retailer who has developed quite the name for themselves. It has well over 350 stores in over 32 states and is expected to continually grow over the next few years (Bond, 2012). For over 50 years, Trader Joe’s has been providing quality customer services, products and a unique shopping experience for its customers. They have come a very long way from when they first officially opened their doors. Trader Joe’s started when its founder Joe Coulombe wanted to find a way to differentiate his 7-Eleven stores (Schermerhorn, Osborn, Uhl-Bien & Hunt, 2012). In the food retailer industry, Trader Joe’s has developed a process that works well and

The Intensity of Rivalry among Competitors in an Industry (High): Equally balanced competitors exist within the industry such as BCF and KMD; these firms also face competition from retailers and wholesalers. The growth of the industry is relatively agile in both financial and technological aspects. The intensity or rivalry is further accentuated by relatively high storage and fixed rental costs, extensive product differentiation and minimal switching costs.

convey the information to the sales and marketing division to provide an opportunity to plan future marketing strategy. The ability for Kudler Fine Food to expand its business is part of the successful implementation plan with the potential of adding software and hardware as the need arises.

Although Kudler Fine Foods has chosen two very specific markets to target, a more thorough understanding of those target markets is needed to deliver what they want. One of KFF’s target markets is gourmands. KFF’s research focus in this area has been primarily on the supply side: Kathy monitors what products the competition is offering, what products are advertised in gourmet magazines, and what products are shown at gourmet conventions and websites. To discover what gourmands want, KFF also needs to research the demand side. Mining on-line blogs and gourmet food forums are two ways KFF can increase its understanding of what gourmands want. Customer surveys, such as the ones KFF currently uses in-store, can also be revised and used both in-store and on-line. Specific areas to be researched include:

Next the evaluation of current and future opportunities available to Kudler Fine Foods would want to be evaluated. These opportunities could include technology upgrades, market positioning, diversification, or any other related areas. During this evaluation it might be useful to gather information from industry experts or consultants (MacVicar, 1996).

Kudler plans to expand these areas in the future, providing a multitude of specialized classes to its loyal customers. Offering cooking classes in many areas of the store makes customers more interested in shopping the store and learning new techniques in cooking healthy fares for their families. In addition to offering these classes, the employees are to be cross trained in many areas to provide a pleasant shopping experience for Kulder 's customers. The customers will also be provided with brochures of the dishes they will learn in the store that will provide the recipe and food suggestions that will go with the main dishes taught in the class. This suggestive information has been proven effective in marketing strategies; therefore, Kudler will use this suggestive marketing technique to increase the buying desires of the customers.

“Kudler Fine Foods is a local upscale specialty food store located in the San Diego metropolitan area” (Kudler Fine Foods, 2011) that needs to enhance its marketing

With up to date analysis of competitors marketing strategy and tactics Kudler can keep its own marketing strategy and tactics prepared to do whatever is necessary to market better quality and win the satisfaction of consumers over its competitors. Whether it is producing a larger selection of wines, expanding its bakery products, finding new ways to make its meats and seafood tastier than its competitors, or even lowering prices, Kudler can lower its prices to gain market advantage only if it has up to date information about competitor’s prices. Same with its products, Kudler can only differentiate its products if it knows sufficient information about competitor’s products (Business Marketing Plan.net, 2011).

Kudler Fine Foods has had great success in the past and present with its mission and sales. Since its first upscale store opened in 1998, Kathy Kudler (Founder) has expanded and opened stores in two other locations. So, to further expand its operation, Kudler has decided to express interest in designing Kudler Fine Foods Frequent Shopper Program. This shopper program should

Kudler Fine Foods is a local retailer of gourmet foods and ingredients. Through three store-front locations Kudler offers premium products to the local market and regional chefs or restaurants. Since their inception, Kudler Fine Foods has strived to provide the very best customer experience through quality products at reasonable prices and

Kudler Fine Foods is a privately held upscale specialty food store, located in the metropolitan area of San Diego. Currently the company has three locations in La Jolla, Del Mar, and Encinitas. Kudler stores have a fine selection of bakery and pastry products, fresh produce, fresh meat, seafood, condiments, packaged food, cheese, and specialty dairy products. Each of the stores has a domestic and imported fare. The owners at Kudler are exploring ways to expand the organization and maximize profits. The three options for expansion are going public through and IPO, acquiring another organization in the same industry, and merging with another organization. This paper will list the three options

Kudler Fine Foods has several issues that can be analyzed and broken down regarding how the problem started. From finding the root of the problem, the gourmet market now has several issues to debate. The issues, with clearly stated situations above, can be directed into positive goals with a problem-solving approach for each. These goals are all attainable to move the company forward in a positive tier for financial success.

As listed in Kudler's 2003 Strategic Plan, SWOT identifies Kudler's strengths are small organization, minimal competition, variety, Kathy's relations with staff, and repeat business. Weaknesses are that primary dealing is in perishables and high pay-roll. Opportunities are in areas for catering, increase in product line, and opportunity to be acquired. Threats are from gourmet shops and economical affects, (Strategic Objective, n.d., page 8).

Rivalry among existing competitors describes the intensity of competition between “Broadway’s Café” and existing coffee shops in an industry. A highly competitive industry might result from many players of about the same size, on single dominant competitor, little differentiation between competitors’ products and services

Existing Competitors. Rivalry among competitors within an industry use price discounting, new products, marketing, and other techniques to be competitive. Profitability of an industry suffers from high rivalry. The intensity with which companies compete and the basis on which they compete determine to which degree rivalry brings down an industry’s profitability (Porter, 2008). Pure competition is considered by economists as a competition with a high