Question 1
This essay will use the Porter’s five forces to analyse the supermarket industry in the US, and I will make a decision on whether the US supermarket industry is attractiveness based on its overall profitability level.
Threat of entry
The threat of entry of the supermarket industry in US is low, which base on the analysis of the three major sources that related to the entry barriers. The first barrier is the economies of scale of the existing large supermarkets. When these incumbents achieved larger volume sales, they can have lower unit costs than new entrants, and it will very difficult for those new entrants to compete with them (Johnson, Whittington, &Scholes 2011). For example, Wal-Mart had invested in innovative procurement, automated distribution centre and bar coding to increase its economies of scale, and these investments created a great barriers for new small retailers to enter into the supermarket industry (Porter 2008). The second barrier is the incumbency advantages, which mean the incumbents established their own strengths that cannot be used by competitors (Porter 2008). For example, the top ten supermarkets in US have accumulated extensive experiences on how to run their businesses more efficiently than new entrants (Johnson, Whittington, &Scholes 2011). The subtle differentiation between the products that sold in supermarkets is the third barrier for new entrants. Because most of the product assortment is same or similar between each supermarket,
The grocery industry has a relatively high market commonality; a lot of grocery stores are somewhat related in terms of technologies used, labor force and the products or services offered in the stores. Differentiation with other competitors is key for survival in this highly competitive industry.
1. The grocery industry is a commoditized industry, which makes it difficult for grocers to sustain through differentiation. Buyer power is high and thus, cost leadership and operational efficiencies are critical. There is fierce competition amongst various grocery stores, with the main players such as Loblaw and A&P holding multi-banner stores in various market segments. Traditional grocery stores also lose some of their market share to drug stores, convenience stores and other retailers who have entered the industry. Threat of substitutes from fast-food and take- away outlets is not as prevalent, since many grocery stores have started stocking ready-to-eat meals and have deli services available for consumers. Competitive
Threat of new entry is low because the barriers to entry are high. Newcomers to the industry would require an enormous amount of up front capital to set up the distribution networks and infrastructure, such as establishing hubs, and acquiring aircraft and a large amount of ground transportation vehicles (vans, trucks, ect). Economies of scale are significant and would deter new firms from entering because initial sales volumes would be low do to the fact that existing brands already have strong brand identification, and there are no cost advantages to entering, like government
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
Trader Joe's faces several threats to its business, as competitors try to invade the company’s niche and attempt to imitate the company’s core strategies. The supermarket industry itself faces a major threat, as larger chains such as grocery retailers Wal-Mart and Tesco have begun to open small-format stores that mimic the Trader Joe's approach. This invasion results in additional cost pressure for incumbents like Trader Joe’s, which had to let go employees in order to become more cost competitive.
Rivalry- Grocery Checkout’s main competitors are Loblaw’s and Valu-Mart. Their proximity to the University of Western Ontario makes them accessible to the students, but by public transportation or their own cars. The
Barriers will be placed on all new supermarkets entering the sector; this will be from the existing supermarkets. For example Tesco may have cornered the market for certain goods therefore has established a relationship with its supplier so that it will pay a lot less for large volumes of goods whereas the new supermarket will not be able to find cheap, reliable suppliers this gives Tesco's the advantage of economics of scale. A new, small supermarket chain can only buy a relatively small volume of goods, at a higher
The UK supermarket industry is a very competitive and profitable industry. It is made up of four main players with significant share of the market, and then various smaller companies who focus on smaller niches in the market such as the bottom of the market discounters and the top of the line speciality stores. It is an interesting market and this report evaluates the attractiveness of the industry using Porter’s five forces model with an insight into how market nicher Waitrose sustains a competitive advantage. Next this report looks at how major player Sainsbury’s successfully competes against its rivals using differentiation strategies, and analyses current consumer trends and problems can effect this industry.
The industry does not possess major threat from new entrants due to strong barriers to entry and strong competition for retail space. There is also a strong rivalry between competitors as limited space is being contested by major players alongside
In this assignment I will identify what competitive factors and changes Tesco faces in the retail sector and how it might respond to these under the following headings; retail environment using PESTEL, and competitive environment based on overcoming barriers to entry, pricing, new markets and mobile population. In this assignment I will be talking about how Porter’s five forces are being used by Tesco.
Exhibit A shows Porter’s Five forces analysis for Trader Joe’s. Competition within the incumbents is high. Trader Joe’s biggest competitor would be Whole foods, nation’s largest retailer of organic and natural
Five Forces model for a closer look at Kroger and the industry. Competition is a big threat and
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
The Australian Supermarket Industry is the very hot topic that’s why very interesting topic now days. The Australian supermarket and grocery stores have a very severe competition in Australia mainly because of organizations competing in this mature industry are going towards cost reduction initiatives with competing advantage rather than product differentiation strategies, In other words business in this industry increase market share by charging lower prices while making reasonably fair profit. The growing popularity of ALDI – German based company of introducing its own label goods (products manufactured and sold under the retailers own brand) with low cost has forced the two giants –Woolworths and Coles to cut price
As for The Co-operative, I consider that they barely have risk of entry by potential competitors. The most important reason is the price of products. Just I mentioned above, this grocery retailer tend to create strategy of low price in this industry. As we known, low price strategy will make most potential competitors give up, the key factor is low price will cause them cannot compete existing enterprises. After all, most of existing grocer y retailers have existing distribution and customers, thus they can control their price of products lower than new entrants. That is the main reason why they face lower risk of entry by potential competitors. At the same time, large economic scale results in them have power to bargain the price and control the cost, thus this retailer can get the fantastic price from the suppliers. Finally, most customers will be attracted by their low price products. This phenomenon shows that they are the higher bargaining power of buyers in this industry. In the most of case, lower price equal this retailer has larger bargaining power. Just like a theory of economy, if buyer want to buy many products and has large-scale economy, these factors will make them have very strong power to