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 ...
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...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
Creating uniqueness in your product or services typically involves creating distinct features, functionality, support, durability, and brand image that your customers value ((MindTools.com, 2015). Dollar Tree has uniform pricing of $1.00 or less in all of its stores and their locations are more convenient than that of the other discount retail stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. Because all of Dollar Tree’s products are priced at $1.00 or less, consumers find it easier to shop there and a more pleasant experience. Dollar Trees product assortment is different from the other discount retailers; they carry mostly private labels. The difference in product assortment combined with its pricing makes Dollar Tree less vulnerable to competition ((MindTools.com, 2015). Dollar Tree also attempts to differentiate their stores from others by making their stores easier to navigate through by being well organized and ensuring that their stores are well lit, clean and
According to Gibbens, Robert. The Gazette, he states that, past 20 years Dollarama Inc. and chief architect have built 721 unit of national retail chain exceeding $4 billion market value from a small discount store in Matane in Quebec’s Gaspe region. As per the article Rossy open his first store in Montreal in 1992 and was the head buyer besides being the chief executive. “Rossy also innovated on the buying side, cutting deals with the manufacturers, not the distributors that most retailers deal with. He scouted out competitive retailers for items worth $5 and $10 that his suppliers could copy for him to sell for a Lonnie. This enabled Dollarama to offer higher-quality $1 merchandise than most of its competitors, while offering a more attractive (and predictable) shopping experience than most low-end discounters. In early 2009, Dollarama added additional price points of $1.25, $1.50 and $2, but offered loyal shoppers new, higher-quality products at those amounts, rather than simply raising the prices of existing inventory”, according to Gibbens, Robert. The Gazette. The passage states non grocery items will gradually be introduced by August at $2.5 and $3. In the article, its state that introduction of new electronic inventory management system and productivity program by 2014 and 2015 will prove beneficial. Subsequently will reduce most of the increased cost resulted by working through the retailing industry which includes transportation and energy as well. The article also tells, China covers majority part of Dollarama’s supply needs and the rest is spread around other countries including Canada and US. Yet buying is done directly in order to reduce the cost. “You need top rate regional managers but also dedicated indivi...
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.
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 had remained increasing in size because of Walton’s drive to bring prices lower and lower. With consumers always looking for the bargain deal and the sales Wal-Mart never had to have sales because they sell what the have for the lowest possible prices. The concept of supply and demand works perfectly with the way the business is run.
The top two reasons for such success in ranking first in retail store market, is because Wal-Mart is convenient globally and so are there prices in the competitive market . Wal-Mart has three segments which are superstores, discount stores, and Sam's Club stores, all of these are scattered in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Brazil, and Asia. One downfall was from Sam's club because too many were opening all over internationally it decreased the number of customers per location. Overall despite the company's decline on Sam's club sales, the Corporations did well over all with the figures brought in and conditions.
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.
On January 22, 2002, Kmart filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection becoming the largest retailer ever to do so in U.S. history. Most industry analysts attributed the immediate cause of the company's bankruptcy filing to a dull holiday season and stiff competition from WalMart and Target as the chain's more fundamental problem. But competition wasn't the root cause of Kmart's consistently poor performance. The real reason for Kmart's poor performance is that Kmart never had a marketing strategy. Kmart completely misunderstood its market and was positioning itself in the wrong direction. Also, on the strategic side, there are issues of where stores were located. On the whole, Kmart stores did not seem to be sited as well as the stores of the competition. Then there was the issue of technology. While Wal-Mart was becoming the relentless efficiency engine that we know today by investing in technology and streamlining the supply chain, Kmart held back. As Wal-Mart developed an infrastructure that enabled it to lower prices, Kmart slipped into a price disadvantage. This paper discusses these strategic problems that led to Kmart's poor performance.
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
... 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.
On the other hand, most factors prove otherwise. The retail industry does not have high Economies of Scale to be exploited in general . Yet, it is impossible to run department stores like Metro on a small scale . A large retail space, inventory, and warehouse are necessary to host a specialized portfolio of brands and products to better attract both customers and suppliers. Heavy capital requirements and operational expen...
Assets turnover growth is impressive considering other competitors in the industry have closed many stores from losses caused by Amazon market share growth and Costco and Walmart low prices.
Over the past couple of years, Walmart has boosted its e-commerce operations and bringing in a large portion of revenues from online sales (Aronow & Burkett, 2015, p. 20). Gartner Inc. describes Walmart as a “supply chain pioneer” that has continued its push into e-commerce and has expanded investment in multichannel drive-thru pick-up centers and a ‘click-and-collect’ grocery service offered at some of its stores (Aronow & Burkett, 2015, p. 20). One of the components of Walmart’s supply chain in which their success is heavily relied on is the continuous improvement of their supply management as a whole, particularly within their e-commerce division. According to an article on the website logistics company Cerasis, “Not only has Walmart excelled over the decades in traditional supply chain management but… is also focused on continuous improvement by investing more into emerging technologies to capture more of the e-commerce market…” (University of San Francisco, 2015). A concept that our class had discussed time and time again throughout the semester was the concept of continuous improvement. Any given organization or business is constantly focused on continuously improving their business for the better. For Walmart, they believe that the anticipatory action of investing in emerging technologies will help differentiate themselves from the competition
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.