Trader Joe's Case Study Essay

My organization, Trader Joe’s, is not an international business. All of their stores are located in the United States. For this assignment, I chose Whole Foods, who is Trader Joe’s main competitor.
Whole Foods Market allows each market to supply products that are standardized, and also supply products based on local buyer needs, as well as the culture of the area; therefore their business strategy is transnational (Thompson, 2016, p. 192). Whole Foods Market varies their products based on location, focusing on local products and any unique products to promote a neighborhood market feel to their customers. The company chooses its locations strategically, in educated area, and then focuses on products to sustain a competitive advantage.
The decision to expand to the United Kingdom and Canada was the potential for growth. European’s tend to be more in tune with organic food and healthy eating. The Kensington location in the United Kington is a high end area, and Whole Foods should be successful selling some of its higher-end products there. The coffee and tea department was

designed differently to account for the popularity of home-brewed tea, and there is a wide assortment of regional cheeses (London and Partners, 2016). There are also more ready-made prepared meals, which are freshly prepared foods that can be taken home, which is very popular for this area.
Whole Foods first entered the Canadian market in 2002, and the demand for organic food has been increasing (Retail Insider Media, 2014).

A pro to expanding to Canada is that Canadian shoppers are similar to American shoppers, making this a good target market for growth (Fiorletta, 2015). In an interview regarding expansion in Canada, CO-CEO Walter Rob said, “Our efforts in Canada are part of the effort to grow. We think the opportunity for fresh, healthy foods is larger now that it’s ever been. And we intend to grow as fast as we have ever grown — 40 new stores next year, 42-44 for the following year. That’s 10% square footage growth on top of 15 million square feet of retail we already have. People have said maybe we should stop our growth. I said, No, we are not going to do that because our strategy is working. There’s no reason to stop. There’s every reason to keep going” (Vieira,

2014).
A con to this transnational strategy into Canada is that Canadians are bargain hunters, and want a deal (Fiorletta, 2015). Whole Foods in Canada has to outperform their competitors and encourage shoppers to visit their stores. Target stores expanded quickly in Canada, but did not succeed in the short two years, closing all 133 stores (Fiorletta, 2015). The Whole Foods brand name is highly known in the United States, and strong marketing may be needed to promote in other countries, which can be expensive.