The Time Gap In Woolworths

1586 Words4 Pages

倀倀tion 1

There are notably five main gaps that exist between the seller and the buyer. They are space gap, time gap, information gap, ownership and value gap.

Arguably the most important gap a retailer like Woolworths has to take into consideration is the space gap. The location of a Woolworths shop is vital so that it can be of a perfect distance to its potential customers which are people who are all LSM 7 – 10. Looking at the locations of Woolworth's shops, other than the Woolworth's in big shopping malls, they have located them nearby to the prospective customers. Customers of Woolworths cannot possibly go to every seller of their needed products, therefore, Woolworth's acts as in easier alternative to come and obtain the products they want. There are certain products that customers want all year round and are not always available because of certain constraints. For example, certain fruits, vegetables and meat are not available at certain times of the year, but Woolworths make sure that they offer these products all year round by either importing these out of season products or by storing those products for the off season. This essentially is Woolworths's method to bridging the time gap.

Out of the thousands of products that a retail store like Woolworths offers there are bound to be an absence of information that the customer has of each product. Woolworths tries to solve this information gap of certain products by advertising and performing certain marketing strategies to inform the people about products. They do this by T.V, newspapers, magazines, Internet and environmental advertising (billboards and truck advertising). Employees who work in Woolworths stores also act as a form of information on products for customer...

... middle of paper ...

...c factor. The issue was due to food manufacturers being pressurized to buy cheaper and lower quality meat because of rising input prices. It is widely believed that the scandal was only in Europe, but a recent Stellenbosch study showed traces of buffalo and horsemeat in South African meat products.

An environmental factor that affected Woolworths is shown in the example of the 2013 chicken shortage in Gauteng. The cause of this was a disruption in water supply to Potchestroom where several suppliers are based. The water shortage is an example of an environmental factor.

Woolworths donate surplus food to the needy. By Woolworths having a very high standard with regard to food quality, a lot of food would be wasted. The food is still in good condition but does not have the required freshness to meet the Woolworths quality standard. This is a social factor.

Open Document