One of the marketing strategies that ensure the company of long-term profitability is the personal relationship built with the customer base. Customers will not have the same shopping experience with large grocery stores. If there are items that customers would like to have available in Kudler stores they are able to communicate that to management. Management can then relay the data to Kathy Kudler who will search the world for the best available items to satisfy the customer. People will not have the loyalty they get from Kudler at other grocery marts.
(Rounsaville 2007) Being overloaded with the day to day operations of the business has deterred Kathy from being able to focus on the business as a whole. Kathy needs to prioritize her time to focus on the possibility of opening a location in San Francisco as well as the possibility of offering more catering services. In order to solve this problem Kathy will need to bring in some outside management members, this solution will not only free up Kathy’s time it will help her be able to effectively manage her time better as she will not be spending all her time each day handling administrative tasks for the
Critical Issues Cost Structure & Profit – There is a restaurant style cost structure of a 30/30/30, leaving only 10% for profit. Being manufacturing and a highly leveraged company they have a large amount of fixed costs and their cost structure does not reflect this. Expansion – There is inadequate capital to expand Monforte and securing financing from banks is unlikely due to Monforte’s low profit margins of 10% as well as her unfavourable financial ratios, specifically her acid test ratio of 0.9. Focus – The focus of the organization is blurred. There is a need for expansion; however, there is also a need to meet the requirements put in place about locally grown and produced products as well as high wages for workers.
Threat of new entrants: The threat of new entrants is high. The major barriers for a startup to enter the industry are the economies of scale and the distribution channels necessary to be profitable. Due to the relatively little differentiation among companies in the industry, customers tend to visit the closest and most convenient store instead of sticking to a particular one, which makes wide distribution of the business quite essential for the fast food restaurants. Threat of substitutes: The threat of substitutes is also high. Firms in the fast food industry and home meal replacements have to continuously innovate to maintain various product differentiations and high quality of food and service in order to stand out against competitors.
Kathy had a passion for gourmet foods but found that her particular neighborhood just did not have a wide selection of products to choose from. Although she had no experience in operating a gourmet food shop, she believed that a one-stop shopping experience at a place with lots of variety and reasonable prices would be successful. Kudler Fine Foods is a gourmet food chain stores operating in California with obligations to its employees and loyal customers to remain competitive in the field and to keep the quality of the produce and wine at the highest level. Among the produce KFF offers are, wide variety of organic produce grown locally as well as a wide selection of local and imported wines. Since the beginning, Kathy has handled the buying for the stores.
Because it’s so complicated to change production at the facilities, from one type of pasta to the other, it’s not always easy to meet the fluctuating demand. This leads to stock outs levels in the area of five to nine percent. Barilla needs to find a way to lower stock out levels, while keeping inventory levels low. Criteria For this case, success will be defined as the ability of Barilla to smooth out the volume of their deliveries, so that they aren’t sending a given number of trucks one week, and triple as many the next week. In order to do this, they will need better forecasting.
In America we have child labor laws in place to ensure that employees under the age of 17 years old are not working too many hours in a row or in an overall week. Other countries may not follow the same regulations therefore the underage employees may be working harder than they should be. Another ethical issue that McDonald’s has faced is other countries not accepting them as a decent company. In Europe McDonald’s has come under ethical criticism due to the food health, supposed ill treatment of animals, the exploitation of children as employees, and destruction of rainforests. While some of this onslaught may come because they are the leading fast food organization in the world therefore they are coming under fire because of their size.
Suggest the reasons a business may conduct operations in a third world country and disregard any standards of pollution control. In many Third World nations, pollution is unrestricted. Countless other environmental problems are also not addressed by their government. Most often, creating and enforcing environmental regulations would be economically disastrous for a poor country. As a result it is forced to choose between buying food and having a clean environment.
Even with healthier choices, one cannot be aware of exactly what is in the food cooked in restaurants, while families can opt out of the drive-through and go in to sit and eat together at fast-food establishments it isn't as intimate and the time is rushed, low-cost options on fast food menus cost more than cooking a family meal at home. Pollan writes, “The fact is that not cooking may well be deleterious to our health, and there is reason to believe that the outsourcing of food preparation to corporations and 16-year-olds has already taken a toll on our physical and psychological wellbeing” (106). This essay will prove that eating fast-food threatens physical health, weakens the family, and is costly. Physical health is influenced directly by our meal choices. Choosing to order a healthier meal option at a restaurant is not equal to a home cooked meal made with fresh foods.
But in reality it is actually quite difficult to stay dedicated to a diet and a healthy life style. Like I stated earlier our fast food industry is ruining out food pyramid. Making healthy foods more expensive and harder to come by just doesn’t make sense in my eyes. It’s the unhealthy stuff that should be expensive such as a “Whooper” or a “Mc-double” compared to a healthy veggie. Staying dedicated to your diet will bring great joy.