Q1: Describe Dollar General's business strategy. What has the company been so successful? A1: Dollar General's main business strategy is to focus on being the leading distributors of consumable basics, with 30% of the merchandise at $1.00 or less. Dollar General believes in maintaining an assortment of consumable merchandise and making shopping for everyday items hassle free and simplistic. Deriving most of their customer basis from Low, Middle and fixed income earners. With under-serviced rural and urban neighbourhoods being the bench mark of their locations. The company's success can only be derived from its current ability to keep costs to a low, employing minimum staff to operate each store as one point. Another would be stock in general; keeping it at a low price enables more of the item to be sold. Finally Dollar Generals policy's on getting a store ready and opened in 8 days or less. This in term would also generate enough hype and attention to a new stores opening without the means of expensive advertisement. Dollar General keep their stock range fairly basic, only having important consumables, clothing some food items and seasonal and promotional products, this enables them to keep prices of items low with the maximum price of an item found in a Dollar General store being $35.00 The only real Information systems used in each Dollar General store is their satellite link up (space net) and the POS (point of sale) software Triverstiy which enables headquarters with the day's sales information. Stock control is simply done by presuming certain amount of stock is being delivered which of course has a down side as well. In summery Dollar Generals success rate can purely be based on its Target market, keeping ... ... middle of paper ... ...rtain extent but eventually it will not be enough to continue setting up store after store as a means of deriving a profit. Dollar General will need to consider implementing a few more information technology systems in order to keep their current rate of growth and to continue to grow. With better systems they will be able to better track stock whilst on its delivery path, maintain stock control and minimise theft. These few changes would be bound to achieve more profit and get their desired shrink rate down to 1.75% Another thing to consider is a statement made on CNNmoney.com in regards to Dollar Generals consistent store growth that they are only "cannibalizing sales at their other stores and eroding their profits" This is a point that rings very true. Store development is important, but there are other key features that need to be considered for continued growth
Effective price and place strategies are essential for the economic success of current day retailers. Fortunately, Cabela’s has been at the forefront of pricing and place strategies that best serve the company and more importantly, its customers. The challenge for Cabela’s is to ensure the continued refinement and development of pricing and place strategies to remain relevant, because the success of current strategies do not guarantee continued future
Dollar Tree’s acquisition of the Family Dollar stores will better equip them to compete with the leaders in the market such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Dollar General. The acquisition of Family Dollar establishes a new giant of the dollar-discount industry; Dollar Tree will expand significantly to 13,000 stores throughout the United States and Canada (DollarTree.com, 2015). This acquisition also increases Dollar Trees’ access to markets with lower incomes, increases their buying power and their ability to negotiate greater discounts from suppliers while still discovering ways to reduce
Customer loyalty is another competitive advantage. Trader Joe’s doesn’t provide membership card to the customer, however customer still would like to choose Trader Joe’s just because of this
With a growth strategy based on increasing sales, expanding operating profit margins and growing store base Dollar General has seen the desired growth success. Throughout this growth, Dollar General has been committed to their relatively simple business model: providing a broad base of customers with their basic everyday and household needs, supplemented with a variety of general merchandise items, at everyday low prices in conveniently located small-box stores. This commitment has proven growth but there are many risks associated with investing, as stated in the
b. They meet the needs of their target market by building their stores in closer proximity.
Historically, Dollar General operated in a highly price sensitive market segment, with 55% of its consumer base earning an average annual gross income of less than $40,000.[2] To attract these customers, Dollar General employed an Everyday Low Price strategy similar to Wal-Mart’s. Thus, keeping costs low and driving high traffic volumes were critical to the company’s financial success. Dollar General achieved this strategy in several ways, including keeping rents and labor costs low, locating in low-income, high traffic areas that offered consumers few substitutes, and offering a wide variety of popular CPG and white label goods.
| |stores serve three primary customer groups: do-it-yourself customers who are completing projects themselves, |
Retail Pharmacy Growth Strategy: CVS has managed to grow considerably in the past few years with the help of acquisition of beneficial companies and integrated the operations of these companies by creating synergy to drive higher margin and greater economies of scope. CVS is building more and more pharmacy stores in convenient locations. Another strategy that CVS has adopted during 2008-2010 is to move freestanding locations for all their pharmacy stores. This helps the company to provide more convenience to customers and have more square-footage per store in order to add new services such as Minute-Clinic and drive-thru services.
Currently, Nicholson’s financial history boasts a 2% increase in profit annually but this percentage is way below the industry average of 6%. Cooper management proposed that if Nicholson stops selling to every market, increased efficiencies would result and cut cost of goods sold from 69% of sales to 65%. It was also suggested that the acquisition could lower selling, general, and administrative expenses from 22% of sales to 19%.
Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s primary competition comes from general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs and supermarket retailers also present competitive pressure. The discount retail industry is substantial in size and is constantly experiencing growth and change. The top competitors compete both nationally and internationally. There is extensive competition on pricing, location, store size, layout and environment, merchandise mix, technology and innovation, and overall image. The market is definitely characterized by economies of scale. Top retailers vertically integrate many functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, advertising, and shipping. Large scale functions such as these give the top competitors a significant cost advantage over small-scale competition.
Macy 's strategy is to provide a "localized merchandise offering and shopping experience to targeted consumers" (Macy 's Inc., n.d.). Macy 's generates primary revenue through the sale
Some core competencies that must be exploited are: Brand Kmart is an existing well-known and trusted national brand in USA Kmart has private label and designer clothing that is well endorsed Infrastructure Kmart has a large number of well-located, low-cost, leased stores in urban far away from competitors through out the country ( Appendix B ). Staffing Confidence by the market in Kmart is created by the achievements of its staff and management. With the turn-around strategy in place, new blood has been put into the top management structures. In any renewal there will be retrenchment as unprofitable stores are closed. This can be used as an opportunity to retain and move high performing staff to where they are needed and to get rid of non-performing staff. Anderson the chairperson of Kmart is well supported by Wall Street and the board of Directors. These new staff members enter the company with needed skills to address problems in certain areas that previously were poorly managed such as inventory control and merchandising. Store locations, layout and Performance Stores conveniently located away from competitors like Wal-mart and Target therefore less to compete for customers face-to-face. There are 250 non-performing stores who have already been identified as being more cost effective to close than continue with running costs. Expertise exists in-house for the planning of store layout and appearance to meet different customer segments. This concentration of effort will enable focus on key areas Technology Kmart has already invested in good retailing systems. The system can be use to control inventory, supplier payments, track customer buying and monitor income versus profit margins across all stores. Research and Development The planning department is well established and in cross-functional to provide various perspective. The planning department to ensure that strategies at all levels are executed can further use the access to past data and knowledge of changes in buying patterns. Financial Backing JP Morgan Chase has agreed to support Kmart to avert the current threat of closure due to bankruptcy.
For example, in cities like Los Angeles, Houston, New York, Chicago and San Francisco I would make all stores bigger and widen the selection. Most people like myself go to 7-Eleven if they are either on the road or just need something quick. If I was a key exec, I would want us to be more than that. I would try to tap into the demographic that goes to Walgreens and Rite Aid and become even more of a convenience store. I would introduce new products that become synonymous with our brand in the mold of the 7-Eleven
... and each division to have a different manger to work both for his store and for the company. They can increase there overseas branches by having a different strategic plans. They can even divide the products into different categories such as very high or low end products. Need to use new technologies with different approaches so that can ready to use new technologies with in a short span of time. The main generic strategy is to have over all cost leadership by which the Wal-Mart can control the cost. The supply and distribution system has to be more effective in present one so that they can save both time and money while doing distribution of there products from ware house to the stores.
Wal-Mart is coming off a disappointing third quarter when its largest revenue generator, sales from U.S. stores, dropped 0.3%. The company also has forecasted flat earnings during the critically important holiday season. While lowering its full-year forecast, Wal-Mart still expects to see modest sales growth in FY2015 through the opening of smaller, more targeted stores, and its longtime strategy of lowering prices. However, there is some doubt whether these measures will be enough to stave off Wal-Mart 's competitors. Costco NASDAQ: COST is coming off a big year with more than $100 billion in revenue, 5% growth in U.S. store sales, and 7% growth in international sales. As Costco continues to challenge Wal-Mart domestically and internationally,