Perhaps the most interesting case study of cause and effect is that which applies to the grocery industry in the United States. Events like a hurricane can affect the supply of food and other perishable items found at the local grocer. There are also other causes that can influence this fluctuation in supply, such as food recalls, or a company going bankrupt. America 's grocery industry is a big business. It is so big in fact, that a few major corporations dominate it. For example Walmart 's grocery business in the US accounts for approximately 56% of the company 's sales. This is the equivalent of $188B per year. It 's nearest competitor, Kroger 's total sales volume for 2014 was less than one third that of Walmart. (Soni, par. 1) Another …show more content…
Perhaps the most well-known example of this is the bankruptcy of Hostess Foods in early 2012. Hostess was forced to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy due to outstanding pension and medical-benefit obligations to retirees. (Olsen, par. 1) This led to a nation-wide shortage of Hostess products, and uncertainty as to whether or not those products millions of Americans enjoyed would ever return to the market. Hostess eventually emerged from bankruptcy after Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropolous & Co. were selected as the winners of the bidding process for the majority of Hostess’ brands and products. ("Hostess Re-invented" …show more content…
Some examples of these measures are more frequent testing, more adequate labeling, and increasing the number of suppliers of particular ingredients. At the same time, people’s consumption of particular products in response to recalls has changed. (Peake 13) In a general sense, people tend to consume less of a particular product once a well-known recall is publicized. This alone should be reason for a company to “step up their game” and insure that food safety is at an all-time
They anticipate competition between supermarket chains will be fierce this year as food prices continue to stay low. The Canadian grocers have been grappling with declining food prices, especially for meat, and Loblaw’s said “The notion of a shift into a steady inflationary environment is going to be offset by what we see as a continued level of competitive intensity”
RNRA Team, “Supermarkets, Fresh Produce and New Commodity Chains: What Future for the Small Producer?” Hot Topics: February, 2004.
The act of manufactures labeling of our foods products in terms of the ingredients a particular product contains and the nutritious facts is sometimes taken for granted, we often see the labels on our food products, but ignore them because we’re so used to seeing them in our daily lives. Surprisingly, food product labeling, specifically that pertaining to allergen warnings, were not always available to consumers until a government mandate in 2004 (FALCPA). I think part of the reason for such a lateness in regulation was due to a social stigma regarding allergies, that having them was some sort of natural selection and not an issue that should be taken care of. Another surprising notion I came across was that although there was no government regulation, manufactures of food products took a good amount of initiative in letting their consumers know of potential allergens in their products.
Consequently, as a whole Cramer described this possible event as a “destruction of society”. As result, of Amazon making the move of taking over Whole Foods Cramer explained that this will eventually destroy market margins but will essentially lead to owning the food and groceries industry. Understanding why Amazon needed to purchase Whole Foods is crucial because they of needing to serve customer with prepared food as well as fresh foods in which Amazon can not currently provide. Importantly,
...form its own model of retail development to meet its priorities, learn from challenges that others have faced, and successful examples of strategies for “competitiveness with inclusiveness” among traditional retailers, wholesaler, and farmers entering an era of rapid retail transformation and concomitant food system change. Research conducted by Reardon and Berdegué (2002) have found that the emergence of supermarkets in developing countries is relatively recent. Their expansion, however, has been rapid. ‘Supermarkets are now dominant players in most of the agro food economy of Latin America, having moved from a rough-estimate population-weighted average of 10-20 per cent in 1990 to 50-60 per cent of the retail sector in 2000’. The share of supermarkets in the food retail sector of principal Latin American countries is now similar to those in developed countries.
The Food Safety Modernization Act strives to make sure that the U.S. food supply is safe by redirecting the efforts of federal regulators from responding to contamination, to preventing it. There are four main elements of the Act. The first element provides new FDA controls over imported foods and six hundred foreign facility inspections (Levitt, 2011). The amount of inspections is proposed to double every year for five years. Under the Food Safety Modernization Act, new fees will be issued to food companies. Food companies will be required to have export certificates. Other fees will be associated with importation of foods (Levitt, 2011). However, the new act will allow for a fast lane for imports for those companies that subject themselves to more intense inspection and participate in the qualified importer program. Overall, the act will provide the FDA with more enforcement powers (Levitt, 2011). Power will come in the form of increased inspections of both domestic and foreign facilities and mandatory recalls if the FDA suspects a food, drug, or beverage may be tainted. Lastly, under the new act, ...
For Oliver’s Market among the five Competitive forces, pressures associated with the threat of new entrants into the market are the strongest one. Because Wal-Mart and Target had announced plans to develop regional supercenters in the Sonoma county region. They are strong candidates for entering the market, because they possess the res...
There are many external threats and risks facing the grocery industry. The biggest risk firms’ face is competition, both domestically and globally. Margins within the grocery industry are already very small, and intense competition only heightens the pressure to preserve profitability. Peterson (2014) states how “in the 1990s and the beginning years of this century, the greatest threat to supermarkets and grocery stores came from supersized ‘one stop shopping’ venues like supercenters and warehouse clubs.” Nowadays, grocery retailers have to worry about competing with all types of other retail channels, ranging from dollar stores to e-commerce. Often times, traditional retailers like Kroger are not able to match the strikingly
The aisles of grocery stores are chock-full of a wide variety of everyday products: produce, meat, laundry detergent, candles, socks, tooth paste, and so on. American citizens’ lives vary as widely as the products in a grocery store, but one aspect that remains the same is the need for basic household items. These residents gather at humble stores every single day in search of products and unknowingly cross paths with each other. Let’s take a look at what the shoppers and employees at an average grocery store in America might look like.
For decades the United States of America has stressed the importance of food safety by discovering and preventing outbreaks. Fifteen states have united with the CDC food safety programs to get ahead of persevering foodborne epidemics. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) empowers the FDA to better defend public health by firming up the food safety system. Congress has shown explicit enactment dates in the legislation. Some establishments will go into effect swiftly, such as the FDA’s new ability to command companies to recall food, and others entail the FDA to concoct and distribute regulations and guidance documents. One out of five Americans are falling ill each year because of foodborne illnesses
Since Greencore Group plc operates in the convenience foods industry in both the US and the UK, therefore, this part of the report will analyse and discuss both the markets. We already know that Greencore Group plc is one of the top companies in the convenience foods industry. According to Businesswire (2016), people in both the US and the UK (especially the people who live in cities and towns) rely heavily on such foods because they are very easy to consume, and have a prolonged shelf life. In addition to that, convenience foods are very suitable for the busy lifestyle of town and city dwellers, and the elderly population of both regions. As a result, the market for convenience foods look very promising
Challenges in Today's U.S. Supermarket Industry. 2014. Challenges in Today's U.S. Supermarket Industry. [ONLINE] Available at:http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479076.aspx. [Accessed 31 March 2014].
Start-up online supermarkets have the ability to target certain market segments within the whole market. A good example of this is myfivemeals, which has been recently founded by a University of Canterbury student (O'Connor, 2014). Myfivemeals offer home delivery of ingredients to make five recipe meals. In this case, Stefan Warnaar has decided to compete for student’s business. Their cost is $130 a week and each meal feeds 4 adults. This is reflective of the typical demographics of students, in particular income that a student has. While this is not directly an online supermarket, it in the industry of Food and food delivery and is a novel and inexpensive way to set up business.
Imlay, T. (2006). Challenges in today’s u.s. supermarket industry. Microsoft Retail and Hospitality, Retrieved from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa479076.aspx
It is very easy to find a supermarket in the street and you may see many different markets just in the same street. The supermarkets are widespread in our daily lives and offer us much convenience. In the 1850s, go shopping may meant going to the far away open-air markets or specialist cheesemongers to buy the butter, cheese, fresh egg and bacon from framer and sugar, cocoa, tea and coffee from grocers (William.Y, 2004). Now you can buy all of these things in the supermarket just near your living or working place. Large supermarket chains depended on huge company or group which has sufficient funds can spread everywhere, such as Tesco. In addition, the large companies may acquire the small one which could expand the spread. For example, the Walmark acquires the CARHCO (Central American Retail Holding Company). Walmart owned 51% of the CARHCO alliance as the largest owner and use the new name Walmart Central America replace the CARHCO in 2006. With several years developing, its stores rose from 254(in 2005) to 519 (in 2010) and get US$2.7 billion paying in 2010. (Walmart México, 2009). In this way, the supermarkets get more widespread in our lives. And it also has various kinds of goods offered to the people. Customers could choose the vegetables, meat, fish and other things that the small supermarkets may not offer. For example, Tesco has its own brand goods that could