Kroger

Kroger Supermarkets were started in 1883 by Barney Kroger in downtown Cincinnati. Mr. Kroger started his business with the motto: “Be particular. Never sell anything you would not want yourself.” Through the years Kroger has strived to uphold this motto to its customers and to provide great service, the freshest products and expansion to meet the needs of their customer base making it one of the world’s largest retailers. Kroger now has over 2,600 stores in 34 states with $108.5 billion in annual sales. Kroger operates 37 food processing facilities and Kroger was the first grocery retailer to use the electronic scanner.

Kroger’s corporate strategy consists of continuously innovating and creating new ways of bring value to the customer. They were pioneers for many of the things that we now consider norms in grocery stores. In the past, Kroger had rapidly expanded to many store locations to gain market share. This expansion strategy caused them to lose profits in

This results from the fact that it is a mature segment with many well established companies vying for market share. The industry is highly consolidated and very fragmented. To grow their businesses, companies rely heavily on mergers and acquisitions to capture additional market share. Historically, the grocery industry has been characterized by slow growth which results in strong price competition and the development of aggressive marketing campaigns between existing firms. Perceived product quality and strong brand recognition by consumers are the basis of competition among firms in the industry. The source of General Mills’ competitive advantage lies in its ability to develop innovative products and highly reputable brands. As a result, they hold cost leadership positions across a number of grocery categories. Exhibit 1 shows the top US companies according to their sale of packaged foods globally. Market leaders include Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Nestle, Mars, Kellogg, and General Mills, however, neither company possess an overwhelming share of global sales. This is in part due to the large degree of product diversity throughout the industry and the strong brand rivalry of each competitor’s labels.

In the United States, the food retail industry is absolutely massive. According to Statista, this industry brings in nearly 5.27 trillion dollars annually and 594.4 billion of that is from grocery store sales. In this market, the 20-ton gorilla in the room is Walmart, racking in nearly 20% of the entire market at around 118 billion dollars in 2013 according to the Harvard Business School case study. Following Walmart, Kroger and Costco own the biggest next largest slices bringing in 76 billion and 71 billion respectively. In this highly competitive market that has some of the smallest margins of any industry it can be tough to get ahead and even tougher to grow. However, Trader Joe’s has managed to pierce what was once a very small world

Operating on very thin profit margins, players in the supermarket industry traditionally either focus on a premium segment or follow a discounter strategy at the low end. Premium players address educated and more price elastic consumers who value healthy, natural and organic food; the share of perishable items for these players is normally distinctly higher. Players that focus on a discounter strategy offer a higher share of simple necessity items and value price competitiveness over premium features like healthiness or organic origin. Independently of the focused customer group it is imperative for players in the supermarket industry to be cost efficient and optimize operations

Superior Supermarkets is in need of a strategic program to help fuel continued growth, market share, and profitability. The current issue of a new pricing strategy is warranted, considering competitive forces, increasing consumer price consciousness, and recent sales being below budget. Table 3 illustrates how SS compares to its competition in terms of product distribution – a lower percentage of grocery and higher percentage of meats and produce. This table also depicts that lower percentage of sales exist for high profit margin items. This information can be supplemented by recent consumer research carried out through telephone surveys and two focus groups.

According to the Kroger website, their mission is to “be a leader in the distribution and merchandising of food, pharmacy, health & personal care items, seasonal merchandise, and related products and services. [They] place considerable importance on forging strong supplier partnerships. Our suppliers, large or small, local or global, are essential components in accomplishing [their] mission”(“Vendors & Suppliers”).

In 1883 Bernard (Barney) Kroger invested 372 dollars that consisted of his life savings to open the first ‘Kroger’ grocery. That first store, located at 66 Pearl Street in downtown Cincinnati, would soon turn into the giant retail chain that consists of nearly 2,500 stores all over the country and most recently produced sales of over 76 billion dollars. Barney Kroger was revolutionary in the formation of the modern grocery, in that he was the first grocer to have his own bakery, as well as selling meat and other groceries all under one roof. Kroger was also the first to manufacture the products that he in turn sold in his own store. This was the beginning of what is today one of the largest food manufacturing companies in America.

The Kroger Company is an American retailer established by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Ohio USA. It’s the country 's biggest supermarket chain and second biggest general retailer (after Wal-Mart). Kroger is also the fifth biggest retailer in the world as of 2013. Kroger operates 2,625 stores across the USA with its headquarters in downtown Cincinnati Kroger. It operates 40 plants for manufacturing, mostly bakeries and dairies. Additionally they are operating 777 convenience stores and 374 jewelry stores through various subsidiaries. Kroger also oversees 87 convenience stores, which were operates through franchise agreements. It operates in the markets of 31 states.

The Kroger Company grew in 128 years from one store to over 3,500 stores of various banners and products. The Kroger Company is the largest food and drug retailer in the United States and is growing constantly with diversity in the retail market, dealing in food, pharmacies, apparel, jewelry and fuel. Kroger is governed by a 14 member Board of Directors including a Chief Executive Officer. Kroger is a leader in Corporate Social responsibility by maintaining environmental consciousness, social awareness and energy conservation awareness. Kroger is committed to customers, builds diversity and focuses on growth. The company operates a large part of it’s own manufacturing and distribution to increase profit

point of sale system. The POS system is a perpetual inventory counting method that electronically records items immediately upon their point of sale (Stevenson, 2015, pg. 552). In other words, as a cashier scans a customer 's groceries, each scanned item is automatically recorded in the system and deducted from the store’s inventory. Implementing a point of sale would benefit a business’s inventory management function in several ways. First, the POS system will provide managers with a continuous flow of updated information (Stevenson, 2015, pg. 552). As a result, the information will provide more accuracy when used for sales forecasts and analysis, which substantially affect inventory decisions. Continuously, this inventory system would also allow greater flexibility in the sense that it can be wirelessly linked to the main company’s inventory system, creating a network of the company’s inventory systems. The POS system is capable of tracking many operations at once and can be modified according to management’s needs (MacCarthy, n.d.). This flexibility would undoubtedly benefit a large company like Wegman’s with many store locations. Lastly, the system is able to help businesses maintain a high level of customer service. Because the system gives customers a receipt with the price and quantity of each item purchased, the customer is able to see exactly what he or she purchased. This practice

The discount stores offer a variety of merchandise for the consumers, including items such as: electronics, hardware, jewelry and toys just to name a few. In 1988 the company opened their first supercenter. A supercenter offered all the merchandise that a discount store has, but also offered to the consumer a grocery store as well. Supercenters offer the consumer such merchandise as: bakery goods, fresh produce, deli foods and frozen foods as well. This became a very popular idea among consumers that they could go and pick up an item that is sold in the hardware department and also pick up a frozen pizza under the same roof. It eliminated the need to travel to various stores when one trip to a supercenter could provide the consumer with all the items needed.

When the recession began, consumers purchased store brands because they cost less than the national brands. As the economy rebounds, many consumers still choose store brands. Cost is not as relevant now. Some consumers found store brands are better than the national brands. One consumer enjoys the not as sweet taste of Target’s store brand apple juice over the national brand, Motts (Karp, 2012). Price is not an issue as many store brands become specialty items (Karp, 2012). Many stores are expanding their lines of private labels by adding new flavors and creating new packaging (Karp, 2012).

5. Selling-machines in high traffic areas to take advantage of the local culture of using this kind of nontraditional POS. They should be distributed in subway and JR stations and areas of high concentration of people in transit. The machines could use the card or mobile payment method to generate data information. The selling-machines would be loaded with products according with the demographic data gathered by the stores in the region.

A point of sales system is another great addition to nay growing business. The POS has many functions. The POS will contain a register for purchases, have the ability to track reports and menu maintenance, improve service speed, and enhance customer service. To increase service speed, the POS efficiently makes order entries that are then transferred to the kitchen. This results in fewer mistakes and the ability to track ticket and wait times. The system also has the function of splitting checks and makes card processing simple. This ensures more seat turnover and shorter wait times for the customers. In return this has the potential to increase revenue at every service. POS can create loyalty programs that ensure repeat customers and generate more sales of gift cards. POS provides operational control that analyzes “detailed reports to drill down on sales, server and restaurant performance” (NCR 2013). A software like ALOHA also provides a training interface that allows new employees to learn the system quickly. This reduces the cost a restaurant would ultimately have to pay on training new employees. The ALOHA system is very up to date with new technology trends, providing mobile and digital signage and cloud based solutions and social technologies. The variety of functions in a point of sales system makes it very attractive to new restaurant owners. The cost of a POS can range hundreds to thousands of dollars based on the size of the