The Food Retail Industry Is Absolutely Massive

It has been said that U.S. food spending is increasing, but unfortunately, supermarkets are not making what they should be. Between the alternative grocery methods, and other such societal shifts, this has caused some supermarket chains to have to focus on their more profitable stores, and exit from the less profitable areas. Even though such value-oriented grocers as Walmart are making it very difficult for conventional supermarkets to compete based on price, Publix continues to lead in the supermarket industry where they made $548 per square foot annually. In addition, Publix’s net earnings in the beginning of 2010 were up to $996 million, compared to $877.3 million in the previous year (Mujtaba & Johnson).

Consumers view Whole Foods Markets as being very expensive and have given the retailer the nickname “Whole Paycheck”. Whole Foods carries a wider variety of organic foods and healthier brands besides their private brands. Whole Foods is experiencing a decline in sales due to other stores; like Wal-Mart, who are stocking organic foods at much lower prices; which has decreased differentiation (Lutz, 2014). Its decentralized business model decreases efficiency in procurement, distribution, and marketing efforts.

Trader Joe’s in not a super mega store or chain. Each of its location have an average of about 10,000 S.F. This limits the variety of product that they carry but does not limit their variety. This means that they don’t carry your staple products from Kellogg’s, Kroger, General Mills, etc. like Walmart or Safeway but allows them to carry their own versions of such foods and hard to find products that their competitors don’t carry. Most grocery chains carry around 50,000 sku’s in each of their stores, Trader Joe’s carry only around 4,000 sku’s, 80% of which carry its own private label (Kowitt, 2010). Fortune magazine also estimated sales to be $1,750 in merchandise per square foot. This more than doubles sales of its nearest competitor, Whole Foods. If a product doesn’t carry its own weight, it is gone to make room for

Competitors Intersections: Trader Joe’s is the most appropriate rival to analyze for this section of the report dealing with how rivals are coping with the marketplace and how their actions are impacting Whole Foods. Year ending 2009, Whole Foods had $12 Billion in sales, while Trader Joe’s was $8.0 Billion. They are the next closest rival to Whole Foods. Trader Joe’s offered no discount specials or coupons like Whole Foods did when the recession hit hard in 2008. This may be a major factor in why Whole Foods is doing so much better than them currently. Marketing impact of Whole Foods can be seen by a direct increase in sales since the recession hit. Trader Joe’s does incorporate a low cost strategy in the marketplace. They utilize a wide selection of house labeled items that are a significant value compared to the name brands. These house labeled items are still

Trader Joe’s is an American privately held chain of grocery stores founded by Joe Coulombe. Trader Joe’s have been successful business for long time with their unique innovative strategy of selling natural and organic food products with only one brand of an item for low price. Their unique culture of relaxed beach environment and helpful knowledgeable employees makes their customer to stay loyal to the brand. Eighty percent of Trader Joe’s has in-house products that differentiate them from competitors and hard to imitate. Trader Joe’s target young educated people who want to eat healthy for low prices. They can really expand their business by investing in marketing, social media, loyalty- card program and

I e-mailed Trader Joe’s to ask what competitive strategy they recently implemented in the last three years, but as I suspected from my research of this organization, they will not disclose any of their business operations. I searched online and was able to find that Trader Joe’s decided to lower their prices, which has put pressure on their main rival, Whole Foods (Peterson, 2016). Analysts checked the prices on 77 similar items at a New York-based Trader Joe's store and nearby Whole

Trader Joe’s currently has more than 400 stores that produce an estimated $11.3 billion in annual sales (More than mere supermarkets, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are health food meccas, 2016). The continued high performance of this company along with their differentiation and low-cost strategy is something their rivals must master in order to

Consumer food demands has made a corner mom- and – pop grocer to a fast, mass, and globally producing supermarket and there is a price to pay.

Trader Joe’s has an amazing business model that makes them a $9 billion dollar 365 store organization, which can make larger stores very envious. First of all they use smaller real estate the average store is about 25% of a full size grocery store, they pretty much carry specialty products that are exclusive to Trader Joe’s, they may appear under their house brands of Trade Giatto, Trader Jose´, Trader Ming & Trader Darwin that cannot be found in any other stores.

The Company’s CFO recently said that “there is definitely more competition out there...grocery stores are now much more involved in competing for dining dollars…there’s definitely a lot of restaurants and a lot of options out there that just make taking share from others just a little bit more difficult.” In short, competitive supply has escalated across the discretionary business of eating

It sells unique products from different countries which is attractive to people. With that strategy that is difficult for competitors to copy, Trader Joe’s can boost their sales as because it is the only store that can sell such assortment.

I believe one of the objective was to also provide high quality foods at a low price. Also, providing a work environment that was pleasant and laid back was also an objective. In order to accomplish the goals and objectives of the company, Trader Joe’s had to have a good organizing strategy. According to Uhl-Bien, Schermerhorn and Osborn (2014), “the company searches out tasty, unusual foods from all around the world; contract directly with manufacturers; label each product under one of several catchy house brands; and maintain a small stock, making each product fight for its place on the shelf.” Because they carried out these plans so effectively and organized so accurately, they were able to save a lot of money during this process.

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

Firstly, it is important to remember the current situation of Trader Joe’s in USA, the company has over 400 stores in 30 states and is the leader in customer service in USA. However, the company is not on the top ten supermarkets in sales category. Additionally, Trader Joe’s just operates in USA and does not have experience in other international markets. (Peterson, 2013)

In the US, supermarkets are the first choice for customers because they offer a large number and different kinds of things to meet the needs of the consumers. In 2014, the annual value sales of supermarkets reached US$ 365.4 billion so that they remain the top in grocery retailing channel which account for above one third of grocery retailing value market. (Euromonitor International, 2015)