Outline the View That Big Supermarkets Both Provide and Limit Choice

Operating on very thin profit margins, players in the supermarket industry traditionally either focus on a premium segment or follow a discounter strategy at the low end. Premium players address educated and more price elastic consumers who value healthy, natural and organic food; the share of perishable items for these players is normally distinctly higher. Players that focus on a discounter strategy offer a higher share of simple necessity items and value price competitiveness over premium features like healthiness or organic origin. Independently of the focused customer group it is imperative for players in the supermarket industry to be cost efficient and optimize operations

• The average grocery store has 47,000 products which makes it look like there is a large variety of choice – but it is an illusion – there are only a few major companies and a few major crops involved

Based on my shopping experience I completely agree with Marion Nestle and the facts he presents us with in “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate”. Walking through the aisles I noticed what he mentioned about the way supermarkets arrange their items so that they can increase their sales. I went to Publix to carry my out my research. For me, it felt like Deja Vu. Just to the right of the entrance was the store’s bakery, and I have to say It smelled delicious (I almost went and bought myself a dessert). I continued browsing through the aisles and I noticed that the best-selling/most popular brands were at eye level, and right next to it (at the right) were the store brands. Something else that caught my attention was that the entrance to the

The UK supermarket industry resembles an oligopolistic industry, with several characteristics. Oligopolistic markets tend to be characterised by high concentration ratios, barriers to entry and…Since the turn of the century, the industry has been scrutinised by both the Office of Fair Trading and has been referred to the Competition Commission on two occasions. (Seely, 2012)

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.

In the other article, “The Supermarket: Prime Real Estate,” Marion Nestle claims that supermarket companies control people to buy goods by using some surprised strategies. I as the reader disagree and think the writers claim is weak because even though supermarkets are created in a way to persuade people to buy certain foods, one is more in control of what one needs to buy due to time and having an idea of what they need and came to the supermarket to buy in the first place. In other words, one goes to the supermarket with the intention of going to buy something whether it is milk, chicken, etc. So by saying “that supermarket companies control people to buy goods” it is a bit untrue to the reader.

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

     The main substitute to buying your food from a grocer is going out to eat. A 2002 Gallop poll shows that Americans eating more meals outside of the home than ever before. When examining today’s changing supermarket consumer in Progressive Grocer, Buck Jones made this observation: “To get the total picture we need to look outside the supermarket arena at how customers are using other retail outlets to satisfy the needs that we could be addressing.” The success

Supermarkets also claim that their economic leverage enables them to benefit local communities by building stores and providing social and economic regeneration packages. One such example is Linwood, on the outskirts of Glasgow (Allen, 2009). The closure of a main employer left the centre of Linwood economically scarred. A proposal to build a new Tesco supermarket in the area and attract other special retailers to the ailing Town Centre was met with enthusiasm by local residents. Supporters of supermarkets advocate that everyone within the supply chain (customers, communities and suppliers) benefit from supermarkets, a concept Dennis Wrong terms the “positive sum game” (Allen, 2009).

There are 92,796 grocery stores in the UK and the market value increase by 19.5% in the last 5 years and according to IGD forecast the UK grocery market should reach £203bn by 2019. But what we can see in the figure 1 that from 2009 to 2014 annual grow in the grocery market start decreasing from 4.9% in 2009 to 2.8% in 2014. One of the reason for this is difficult economic conditions which had an effect for consumer spending. Consumers choose to spend less money on food by buying less food or by looking for cheaper places. Retail market is diversified into three main sectors: Hypermarket and superstores which accounts for 42.3% of retail market, convenience stores 21.4% and small supermarkets 20.3% (Figure 3). So about 84% of sales are done in these three sectors. The biggest 4 retail chains in UK are: Tesco which takes 28.7% market share, Asda has 17.3%, Sainsbury’s 16.6% and Morrison’s 11%. (Figure 2) So, if we will sum up 4 biggest retail market chains we will have about ¾ of market share. Finally, a strong characteristic of this sector is competition with price wars and a

* External Context of Sainsbury’s belongs to the biggest supermarket leaders in UK. In other words, Sainsbury’s is part of big four ‘Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrison’s. The biggest rival today in UK market is Morrison’s, they booth fighting for a market but Sainsbury’s ram in a higher place. In Appendix 3, we can find concept of retail and types of functioning.

supermarkets like Tesco offering the biggest discounts in the UK and Sainsbury 's offering of substitute products too (Mintel, 2010). This shows the responsiveness and flexibility towards consumer needs in the supermarket industry.

The possibility to answer any question, at any time, is thanks to a device that was popularized a decade ago, the smartphone. As time went on, the smartphone became less of a phenomenon and more of a monotonous object in daily life. Working at one of the most successful Best Buy’s in the Chicagoland area has taught me that technological innovations aren’t important to manufacturers. My two years at Best Buy have been spent on the sales floor and as a Geek Squad agent, giving me a good idea on how to provide and fix solutions for the everyday person. When I began working at Best Buy, it baffled me that people hadn’t known that all laptops came with WiFi, a piece of equipment that was included as standard on all Apple iBooks’ in 1999. Clients

The grocery retail industry worldwide has grown in recent years to become one of the most intensely competitive industries due to the continuous amounts of new entrants. A grocery retailer is one that sells food and other general household items. Hypermarkets, supermarkets, discounters and small grocery retailers are all under the grocery retail umbrella. Between 2003 and 2008, the grocery retailing industry accounted for 45% of store-based retail values sales over the world. The figures

Abstract The main purpose of this report is to make references to significant microeconomic models, in order to explain the supply, Demand, Market equilibrium, price discrimination, and Opportunity rate as well as making references to important macroeconomic aims which can be described with some examples such as growth, Inflation, Unemployment, GDP, exchange rates and many more, this two business economic topics are very relevant in today’s market as they represent the real-world meaning of the business area. This report will analyze both parties and evaluate any issues happening to date.