A Case Study of Publix Supermarkets

The company that I would like to work for being the Publix business analysis and reporting. I choose this according to fortune magazine Publix is the best 100 places to work for because of their diversity, stock ownership of the employee account by the end of each year.

With sales of over thirty billion back in 2014, Publix is an American supermarket that has been listed on the top ten American’s largest private companies by Forbes in 2010. It is also the fourteenth largest retailer in America. Publix is privately owned and operated by its 176,500 employees, with its main base in Florida. However, “Publix has 1,103 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina and North Carolina” (Publix Funding) as well. Publix super markets are always trying to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly. For example, they create recycling programs, make sustainable choices of where food is purchased, use reusable grocery bags instead of plastic bags, and so much more. In addition to being more sustainable, they partner with many charities, including: Feeding America Foundation, United Way, and Greenville Habitat. These are just a few of the forty affiliates that Publix has connected with.

Publix supermarket was founded in 1930 by George w. Jenkins (Organizational Structure of Publix, 2013). It is among the biggest and fastest developing employee-possessed supermarket chains in the United States. The organization, however, belongs to a private party. Besides this, the

Question 1: What were the rights of Walmart, the employer, during these two organizing drives?

The main competitors in the national grocery chain are Kroger, Whole Foods, IGA, and Supervalu; several regional grocery chains including BI-LO, Winn-Dixie, Ingles, Fresh Market, Sweetbay, Piggy Wiggly consolidated with warehouse and retail chains including Wal-mart, Costco, Kmart, Target, BJ’s Wholesale and Sam’s Club. Publix for 15th consecutive years has been named as one of the Fortune 100 Best Companies to work. It has never had any layoffs even though some stores have closed and new ones have opened. Each year, the company issues shares of its stock to eligible full- and part-time employees, and cash dividends earned on these shares are paid directly to employees. Publix is a highly established and successful supermarket with friendly service and an immense array of products. They offer “buy- one- get- one- free” deals which vary from week to week on several products within the store.

It was founded in Winter Haven, Florida in 1930 by the inspiration of Georges W. Jenkins who was a successful manager at the “Piggly Wiggly Market.” His Dream was to make a difference among other corporations; therefore, Jenkins decided to put together associates and customers’ efforts to help him expand a single store to one of the largest employee-owned grocery chain in the United States of America. Publix’s success is due to its value proposition that makes the store unique, where shopping is always a pleasure, for customers that value high quality in every aspect of the company despite high pricing. In order for Publix to gain and sustain its competitive advantage, the founder captured his employee’s loyalty by giving shares to the early ones in the company. Also, he offered a “Bogo” program on about forty items every week (buy one and get one free). Publix differentiates itself in terms of service, quality and price. (Anders: missing cite

We value the relationships along the path from “farm to fork” and realize it takes a lot of people, each providing a great service. Publix is currently the focus of a campaign by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) who seeks to pressure us to become involved in the employment relationship between Florida farmers who grow tomatoes and the farmworkers they employ to harvest their product. Since first approached by the CIW three years ago, we have consistently viewed this issue as a labor dispute” (Publix.com). Publix argues that the treatment of workers is an issue between employer and employees and is an issue that needs to be handled by the department of labor. However, they state if tomatoes farmers need to raise the overall price or tomatoes to give their employees better benefits they will pay the market price.

Publix is an employee-owned supermarket chain that is said to be the largest of its kind in the United States. Its operations span throughout the southeast region, with locations in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina; with Florida having nearly half of the company’s operating base. George W Jerkins founded the corporation as an employee-owned private entity. The company has managed to create over 168,000 jobs in its numerous branches now totaling to a tune of 1098 stores. Moreover, it has invested in cooking schools and grocery distribution. The company’s turnover in the previous year, 2014, was 28.92 billion US dollars to 1.74 billion as its net profit ranking it to be the thirteenth largest private retail company in the United States (Forbes.com, 2014). Currently, the price of its stock share is around 39 US dollars per share capital. The company has managed to build a niche for itself competing with the likes of Costco, Whole Foods, BJ’s Wholesale Club, Sam’s Club and even Wal-Mart.

George Jenkins founded Publix Super Market as a private employee-owned American market in the spring of 1930 with a 27 ft by 65 ft store in Winter Haven Florida. Since than the organization has grown rapidly and is currently the largest employee owned grocery chain in the United States. The company was built around their slogan, “Where Shopping is a Pleasure’ and continues strive to make the slogan a reality by providing their customers with a clean atmosphere and excellent customer service. The Publix Super Market stores can be found throughout the southeast, with locations in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The state of Florida currently holds the most Publix stores with a total of 765 stores. The chain is currently expanding with 28 new supermarkets and 154 remodeled in 2015; bring the company to a total of 1,114 Publix Super Market stores that range from 28,000 to 61,000 square feet. In the year of 2016 the company is working on venturing into the state of Virginia with a store opening in Bristol and in metropolitan Richmond. (Facts & Figures, 2014) While other competing grocery stores in the south, such as Win-Dixie and Albertsons are fighting to stay alive with the growing popularity of superstores like Wal-Mart and Target that offer a wide range of products such, as tools, garden, and home departments. Publix is able to continue to excel due to their unique values. Todd Jones, the president of Publix states that, “We believe that

When people shop at their local grocery stores they expect to get what the label says they are getting. If the label says three pounds of meat then they expect to get three pounds of meat, not two and half, but three. Unfortunately it was found out that the customer is not always getting what they pay for.

The Kroger Company was founded in 1883 by Bernard H. Kroger. The Kroger Company have retail nutrition and drug stores, multi retail establishment, adornment stores and accommodation stores all through the U.S. As of January 31, 2015 Kroger worked, either straightforwardly or through its auxiliaries, 2,625 grocery stores and multi-retail establishments, 1,330 of which had fuel focuses. Around forty eight for each penny of these general stores were worked in the Company-claimed offices, including some Company-possessed structures on rented land. The Company's stores work under a few pennants, including Kroger, Dillons, City Market, Food 4 Fewer, King Scoopers Fred Meyer, Fry's, Jay C, , Harris Teeter, QFC, Smith's.

Big-Mart has been trying to build a store in VanWood Heights for a significant amount of time. There are those that are in favor of the big box store and then there are those that are against it. With this case, there are so many reasons as to why the store is not wanted. Many of the longtime residents see the store as ruining their tight knit community once it opens its doors to the public. Other families own businesses that all of the residents frequent to get their needs and wants satisfied. The cost is not mentioned for these particular products that are supplied; but apparently, some are still able to afford it.

Retail sales was the largest industry in the United States prior to the 2000’s recession. It was the top employing industry from 2003 -2008 in nearly half of the U.S. states. Starting in 2009, every year has shown a decline in number of states where this is the top industry; as of 2013, retail was down to six from its peak of twenty-four. Retail is still a major industry but it will be interesting to discover how individual firms, specifically the largest ones, have handled this decline and what they may be doing to reverse the pattern. Kroger, Walmart, and Costco have the top revenues in the industry and are similarly categorized as well. Kroger is a supermarket, a larger grocery store with small section of general merchandise; Walmart is a hypermarket, contains a large range of products in both grocery and general merchandise; Costco is a warehouse club, also a large range of products but with a focus on selling large quantities at a discount with a small club fee. Since these three companies overlap in much of their products, there is competition between them which also adds to why they are respectable choices to analyze together.

In 2023, Fresh Grocers a supermarket chain that operates multiple stores in New Jersey, in the Greater Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania, and Delaware has decided to offer me the position of Regional Manager for all their Philadelphia locations. The Regional Manager role entails that the individual reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer.

The Wal-Mart Discount Inc. was founded in the year 1962 by Sam Walton. The concept behind his retail-stores was to transfer the discount store model from bigger cities to small towns. This was at that time a bold move which resulted in virtually no discount-store competition near the newly founded markets.