“T. J. Maxx is the leading off-price retailer of apparel and home fashions in the United States and worldwide, ranking 119 in the most recent Fortune 500 listings and ranked #1 on The Boston Globe 2010 Globe 100 list” www.tjx.com/aboutus. T. J. Maxx’s competitive advantage of its competitors is really not amongst competitors because the normal stores that a consumer would shop prices in comparison with T. J. Maxx would usually be Marshall’s. Marshalls just happens to be owned by T. J. Maxx, therefore there is a dominant factor in the field of competition because T. J. Maxx has saturated the market that if you one does find a better price at Marshall’s, T. J. Maxx still reaps the harvest of that sale. As mentioned, the bright, colorful décor that T. J. Maxx uses to dress up their stores is a great leap towards attracting consumers.
Costco Costco Wholesales is one of the most famous wholesales in the US. There are many companies considered as Costco’s competitors such as Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesales Club. Those companies including Costco are playing an important role in American retailing industry by having many different stores around the US. They are running the stores by using similar business models. For example, they normally purchase a big number of merchandises from original manufacturers so they will be able to purchase it in very low prices.
Reitmans: Designed for Real Life®. Store location: Sheppard Centre, 4841 Yonge St. Unit 235 Visit time: Mar 12.2011 3:30pm Store Layout As illustrated on Page 3, the Reitmans store uses a type of store layout design called free-form layout, also known as boutique layout, which arranges fixtures and aisles asymmetrically. In this relaxed and comfortable environment, customers feel like they are at someone’s home, which facilitates shopping and browsing. In addition, the Reitmans store sacrifices some storage and display space to create the more spacious environment, which may result in the increased costs that, however, could be easily offset by increased sales and profit margins due to the customers’ feelings of being at home. Feature Areas The Reitmans store’s feature areas include windows, walls, promotional areas, freestanding fixtures and mannequins, point of sale areas and fitting room.
MGMT 4020 June 24, 2013 Homework Assignment #2 Competition is very high in the North American wholesale club industry. Every wholesale club wants to sell top-quality products at prices less than others in order to attract draw customers. And they all want to display low prices on pallets or inexpensive shelving, therefore, they have very low costs for store decor and fixtures, have comparatively low labor costs, and spent minimally on advertising and customer service. Five Forces Analysis 1. Bargaining Power of Buyers is moderate.
For Kudler Fine Foods to fall into this category means that they sell differentiating products from their competitors. They do this by offering their customers a wide variety of goods, an example would be that they offer over 250 kinds of cheese from 21 different countries, not all grocery stores offer that many kinds of cheese. One positive effect of being in a monopolistic competitive market structure is that there is no barrier for entry and that it is easy enter and leave the market at any time. One negative effect that monopolistic competitive markets face is that some differentiating does not create utility but usually generates waste (Economics Online). In a monopolistic competitive market profit is important.
Wal-mart claims to have low prices always, and in the economy that's what Americans need, we need cheap affordable products. But as we saw in the video, Wal-mart will put say a coffee maker, on sale, on display where you have to walk by and see it. And this will make someone look at the coffee maker and say oh, its only $20 dollars, huh well my coffee maker is old I'll go and look at the coffee makers then. The customer will go and look at the coffee makers, see the one they want but its not a low price like the other one, it could actually be marked up. And the customer will assume since the other coffee maker was on sale and such a low price that this coffee maker must be a good deal as well and chances are buy it.
(IKEA.com) This type of strategy is known today as low cost-leadership. Cost leadership strategy involves the firm winning the market by focusing on and appealing to the cost conscious consumers (Hitt, 2013). This type of strategy is achieved simply by having the lowest prices in that target market or by having the lowest price to value ratio in the market. This type of strategy is essential to the success of IKEA. They have tried to make their products affordable for virtually everyone.
The company operates in the moderate price niche, targeting middle and upper-income customers. Tanglewood’s strategic distinction is an “outdoors” theme, with a large camping and outdoors living section in every store. The store also distinguishes itself by its simple, elegant, and uncluttered design concepts for the store and their in-house products”. IDENTIFICATION OF BUSINESS STRATEGY/ GOALS Tanglewood’s business strategies and goals are focused on providing maximum value to the customers, shareholders, and employees. They will achieve their goals by having good communication with its employees, having good customer service and keeping their shareholders happy with the performance of the business.
Pay Less “brand promise. Target currently is the second largest general merchandise retailer in America, with Target.com being ranked one of the most-visited retail websites. I am choosing target for many reasons. I like what they have to offer. Their values are definitely excellent and Target Corporation represents excellent ethical behavior and social responsibility.
IKEA is a well-known furniture retailer. IKEA was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943 (ikea.com). Ingvar, at the age of five, began selling matches to the local community. He then found out that he was able to buy matches from Stockholm in bulk at a cheaper price and sell it back at a lower price and still make a good profit.