North American Wholesale Club Analysis

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Case Analysis March 9, 2014 Business Strategy There is a high level of competition in the North American wholesale club industry. The use of cutting costs to sell products at the cheapest price is what these industry leaders do in order to try to sell their product to the consumer at the lowest possible price. By using a warehouse stores the actual price of opening a store is low along with the use of minimal employees at a cheap labor cost is some of the key aspects in order for prices to be competitively low. Rivalry is by far the strongest of the five competitive forces. Because these wholesale clubs normally charge a membership fee, it is key that the club’s stand out and make sure that they are doing a good job of keeping their customers happy, along with being appealing enough to bring in new customers, and take customers from competitor wholesale clubs. No matter what, the rivalry will be pushed through competitiveness by the clubs and how they react to each other’s new actions to gain consumers. In the center of my five-forces analysis I have determined that there is a strong rivalry present as seen in table 1 below. There is always going to be a demand for these stores and they all sell very similar if not identical products; it is not hard for a consumer to pick anywhere to shop, therefore rivalry is strong. The threat of new entrants, or any entrant that is going to push for competition is weak. It takes a lot of investment to get a powerful, well known retailer in to business. Unless there were a merger of two companies there is not much threat of any new competition. It was hard to really decide of the substitute product. I believe there is a strong threat due to how easy it is for a consumer to switch where they shop. Although the industry leaders sell very similar products, the decisions can come down to price, and how comparable the products

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