Strengths
• Industry Demand
• Size, Ubiquity, Brand Recognition
• A Strong Customer Well-Fare Focus
Weaknesses
• Dependency on Generic Conversion
• Competitiveness with Big Box Stores
Strengths
Market Demand
Walgreens have a huge market. The company has different services like health and wellness services in drug stores of the United States, photo studio and pharmacy. The Walgreen pharmacies have prescription and non-prescription drugs. Also, they sell general merchandise such as beauty and household items. Obviously, that the major part of Walgreens customers are mostly elder people.
The populations in the U.S. and Europe are aging and it provides decent growth opportunities for the company. Since the older people usually need more
…show more content…
According to Fortune magazine World’s Most Admired Companies Walgreens ranked #5 among food and drugstores and it has been listed for the past 21 years.
Their main advantage is that they constantly grow. Nowadays Walgreens have 8206 drugstores including 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and U.S Virgin Islands.
In addition to its drugstores, its Take Care Health Systems subsidiary manages more than 700 convenient care clinics at Walgreens drugstores and health and wellness centers.
Since most of the consumers choose to shop based on the convenience of the location, Walgreens stores are everywhere. It is very easy for consumers to find their local Walgreens pharmacy nearby.
Customer focus
Proximately 6.3 million customers visited Walgreens last year. Another huge strength of the company is their care about customers. Small size format stores allow they focus on customer convenience and service. By running different programs like Rx Savings Advisor, which was focused on elder people or The Dial-a-Pharmacy, the program that allowed customers to speak with a pharmacist in 14 different languages, Walgreens become closer to their
"Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world's largest retailer, with $285.2 billion in sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2005. The company employs 1.6 million associates worldwide through more than 3,700 facilities in the United States and more than 2,400 units in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. More than 138 million customers per week visit Wal-Mart stores worldwide." (Walmartfacts.com)
Walgreens was founded in 1901 measuring 50 feet by 20 feet by Charles R. Walgreen, Sr.. Mr. Walgreen was born near Galesburg, Illinois and his family later relocated to Dixon, Illinois at town about 60 miles north of his birthplace. Mr. Walgreens’ father was a farmer who turned into a businessperson and saw a great potential of the Rock River Valley (Walgreen, n.d., p.1). At age 16, Charles Walgreen had his first experience working in a drug store. He didn’t always have pleasurable experiences but it was a job with pay. He had an accident at a shoe factory that cut off his left middle finger from the top joint. This injury also stops him from playing any sports at school. After a year and a half with the drug store, Mr. Walgreen left to pursue something bigger in the big city-Chicago.
Since 1901, Walgreens has had a strong passion for customer service. The founder, Charles Walgreens, goal was to create a drugstore that was like no other. He said that for as many drugstores as he had worked at, he had never worked for one that had a focus for good customer service and low prices. Walgreens has grown by leaps and bounds since 1901 and is now recognized as the leader in the market with over 7000 stores. Charles Walgreen had an eye for good managers. He said he was able to pick people that he knew were smarter than him so to promote them and make them the heads of his drugstores. As a store manager, not only is it your job to run a store which includes ordering, customer care, and inventory control, but also it is your job to manage the staff. As a part of managing staff, it is their responsibility to hire, train and develop, and terminate if need be. While there are many jobs to choose from when it comes to HR and employee staffing, I choose this one because it is by far to me the most intense.
Walgreens ensures to have high quality products and solutions by making it convenient for clients to get in and out with what they actual need, enhancing its beauty products and stimulate the convergence of health care by putting everything together. In addition, by utilizing over-the counter health service and providing wellness products, the company helps its customer to find more seamless solutions. Employees are trained to make friends and build relationship internally with their customer. Beyond accelerating the products in the physical store, delivering well experiences to customers also need highly engaged employees offer superior customer care in every community. In addition to provide outstanding customer service in retail stores, the company started a piloting program where people are able to order their prescriptions through phone and takes advantage of convenient curbside pick up. In essence, this action partly shifts Walgreens from a retailer to a service based organization. As a result, through the functional strategy in the company, customers can undergo the differential shopping experiences compared to other drugstore in the industry, and the company can improve its positive reputation and customer
Another reason why thrifty and busy consumers love Walmart, is because they offer more than 5,000 locations all
Wal-Mart Stores is an American company that has been on the market for quite some time now. The company was started 60 years ago and it offers a vast selection of products in its stores that include a garden center, super market, pharmacy, optical center, photo processing center, and tire and lube express as well as a pet shop. The store also has smaller shops inside that include fast food outlet, nail, Walmart Visitor Center and video shops. Wal-Mart owned 2,700 super stores in the US and by the year 2001, the organization had become the largest food store in the region.
2. Walmart is here to stay whether you like it or not. It will remain the top retailer as long as it keeps the consumers happy by increasing their accessibility and quality of consumption. Whether you choose to shop there or not, Walmart should still be recognized by everyone as a marvelous American institution.
The Company delivers products and services by advising patients on their medications at its CVS Pharmacy locations; introducing programs for clients at CVS Caremark; delivering care to patients with complex conditions through
Walmart seems to be all over the news due to one of these reasons yet it still remains one of the top corporations in America today.
Walgreen’s customer base and revenue have decreased over the years due to a lack of customer
Walgreens recently announce it’s intention to purchase Rite Aid, which is ranked number three behind CVS Caremark. Currently, CVS Health has 58% of the market, while Walgreens and Rite Aide have 31% and 10.3% respectively. If this acquisition goes through, Walgreens will have a combined entity worth $130 billion in annual sales. They will have 13,000 stores and will hold 41.3% of the pharmacy market share. This will consolidate the pharma retail industry with only two huge retail chains, thereby turning the US drugstore market into a duopoly. (Bells,
This makes their position in the market a strong leader. Along with their strong performance, Walgreen’s continually shows considerable growth. The corporations knows that customer service is a priority and convenience. The attractions is through the style of their stores and locations. They are built freestanding which ensures high visibility for the consumers.
The technology Walgreens put into place helped to accelerate their success and put them well ahead of their competitors. The developed an “application of satellite communications and computer network technology, tailored to the unique needs of specific demographics and locations. A big investment on a satellite system that links stores together, like one giant web of a single corner pharmacy” (Collins, J., 2001). “It's important to let technology he a resource for you. We see it as another tool in our tool belt to help us he more efficient,” (The CEO and the Future of Technology, 2004). The technology was used as a tool to aid them in becoming the best and making their lives easier. They did not utilize technology for the sake of utilizing technology; they utilized the tools that were at their fingertips to make them
In supplier diversity, Walgreens partnered up with many small businesses by promoting entrepreneurship. In fiscal year 2016, Walgreens documented approaching $2 billion in combined spend with small business, minority, and women owned businesses. Walgreens also create strong commitment to equal opportunity through disability inclusion. As a result, these efforts enabled individuals with disabilities the opportunities to perform work standard across variety of work settings (Disability Inclusion,
Wal-Mart Stores is the world's first retailer in Canada, as well as the world's largest company. It is the number one biggest discount retailer in the United States. The store sells groceries, general merchandise, electronic items, etc., The Company operates more than 5,300 stores in the US, including about 4,600 Wal-Mart Stores and 660 Sam's Club membership-only warehouse clubs. Moreover, Wal-Mart is the biggest competitor for Costco.