Point #2: Tariffs protect American jobs and wages. (Points: 13) I find this position to be valid. Protective tariffs are designed to raise the retail price of imported products so that domestic goods are more competitively priced (Nickels, McHugh & McHugh, 2008, p. 76). Therefore, if products are competitively priced then the consumer will be more likely to purchase domestic products instead of imports. Since consumers will be more likely to support American vendors, this will keep the American businesses running and not force them to cut costs to compete with imports.
Final Financial Analysis of The Home Depot and Lowes Ayesha Muhammad Columbia College The companies I picked for the assignment of financial statement analysis are, The Home Depot and Lowes. I will conduct an in dept analysis on both companies by looking into their history, comparing their strengths and weakness in their industry and compiling information about their current financial situation as it relates budgeting and investment. With this information, I will then give a recommendation into which company I would invest with good reason. Both the Home depot and Lowes are major competitors in the DIY, otherwise known as Do-It- Yourself, home improvement market. Both the home depot and Lowes carry merchandise for home, garden, lawn, landscaping, and many other merchandising projects detailed for remodeling and repair.
The five forces include; threat of entry of new competitors, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of customers, the threat of substitute products or services and the rivalry among existing firms in the industry. An example of Kudler’s strategies aimed at each of these five forces is discussed below. Kudler uses differentiation and focus strategies to meet the threats of any new competitors by being unique in its industry. Kudler is an upscale specialty food store catering to the epicurean delights. Kudler has created a niche market.
Walgreens Essay Anita Henderson BUSS460 Rich Rawlinson March 7, 2010 In his popular book about business, Jim Collins discusses ways businesses can improve their performance, making a good company a great one. This paper discusses these concepts in regard to Walgreens. Walgreens is a great company to shop for a numerous of items, but the pay scale is downgraded for the amount of business that it produces. Collins begins by dismissing a number of “myths” about what has to happen in order for a company to effect change. The myths are as follows: first, there is the “Change Program,” the idea that all change begins with some sort of “launch event” (Collins, 2001).
As known that Costco is focusing on high quality of merchandises at relatively low prices, they have one condition in order to purchase merchandises at low prices, which is number of purchases. For example, to have one product that is cheaper than competitors they have to purchase more from original manufacturers. Therefore, Costco realized that they have to keep the sales volume to be high so they are still able to maintain this advantage. Because of this, they try to keep their slogan in customer minds that Costco has lower prices and they try to same membership money. However, there is a problem that Costco has to deal with is that their profits mostly from its membership fees instead its net income.
Additionally, the author describes that hiring only those with good looks can run into antidiscrimination problems. Greenhouse concludes by suggesting that hiring for image leads to the increased prices of product, increased sales of products, and can give the impression of authenticity which eventually leads to what businesses want, profit. Whether retailers should hire only who project certain image it might be morally wrong or not is a provocative question. After considering the evidence presented in Greenhouse’s article and my own experiences, I can fully support retailers company hire only attractive applicants. I am opposed to companies hiring applicants based on their physical appearances in part because hiring good looking people is an advantage to the company, it shows how people are treated differently based on their appearance.To illustrate, Mr. Serrano, a former Abercrombie and Fitch employee emphasizes that, “We were supposed to approach someone in the mall who we think will look attractive in our store.” (p2).
Kudler’s has an inventory that consists predominantly of perishable goods that require replacement often. Kudler’s could cut costs and leave items on the shelf a day or two longer, but that would call into question their very reason for existence in being known for fresh foods. Reputation with customers can be lost with one poor decision. One way to counter that is to provide exceptional customer service. Kudler’s means of differentiating itself from the competition is its ability to provide the best products and the best customer service.
A monopolistic Competition market has many sellers and provides good substitutes but differentiates their products from other companies. The nature of competition in a monopolistic market focuses on marketing, special features and pricing (Colander, 2010). Kudler Fine Foods has only a few competitors in the market that offers the same products and service to its customers. This market structure has negative and positive effects. A positive effect of Kudler Fine Foods in a monopolistic market structure is that they lead in the market and can increase competition between companies and make massive profits by setting higher prices (Colander, 2010).
In a highly competitive business world, on a firm’s priority list is the subject of increasing profit and reducing cost. One might than pose the question, has this put them out of business (mom and pop store)? The answer is absolutely not, but rather, they too benefit from cheaper prices as they continue to buy in bulk and continue to operate as the name suggest, convenient
Now, I am going to analyze by using the Porter’s 5 forces model including the bargaining power of supplier, bargaining power of customer, threats of new entrants, threats of substitute products and rivalry of industry. For the supplier power, there are various small suppliers of Sugar Bowl (i.e. food and drinks providers, shoes and bowling equipment providers). This ensures that if a supplier was to raise their prices, Sugar Bowl would not have a difficulty moving onto the next supplier as there are lots of alternatives. Due to this, Sugar Bowl has a significant advantage over its suppliers.