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Pros And Cons Of Competitive Advantage
Monopolistic competition in the retail grocery business
Theory of competitive advantage
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Nordstrom initially opened as a shoe company named Wallin and Nordstrom by Carl Wallin and John Nordstrom. Throughout the years the name has been changed a number of times and the inventory has changed from shoes to women, men, children apparels and accessories as well as some household goods. In 1971 the company was renamed to Nordstrom. Present day Blake, Peter and Erik Nordstrom now serve as co-president of the company.
2. Nordstrom is one of the largest luxury retailing company that has both a brick-and-mortar-store and an online store which sells a range of goods from children, women, and men apparels and accessories to home goods such as bed and bath and kitchen. According to fortune 100 Best Companies to Work for Nordstrom latest revenue was $13.5 billion.
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The first thought that came to mind was oligopoly. However, I had to correct myself and check my notes that confirmed that Nordstrom is a monopolistic competitor. It falls into this category because there are fewer than perfect sellers. However, there are many
Nordstrom is one of the top retailers in the United States. With a solid brand image and a sound financial situation, Nordstrom is relentless in their expansion in the US, and are beginning to expand into international markets. Nordstrom takes pleasure in providing state of the art client support and having experienced sales people. In order to hold their position as the most successful high-end retailer in the United States, Nordstrom must continue to figure out ways to improve their brand image and customer satisfaction. Nordstrom’s current business working strategy is successful but I believe there are a few ideal solutions that the organization could apply to further enhance the organization. Due to the aggressive characteristics of the fashion retail store market, it is crucial that Nordstrom preserves an aggressive advantage providing the highest level of customer support as possible.
The main rivals among the merchandising companies are Wal-Mart, Kohls, Family Dollar and Target among many more. Wal-Mart and Target are their main rivals, this is because Wal-Mart is known for their niche as having the lowest prices and Target is known for their fashions and home furnishings both of these items Kmart tries to compete against. Also buyers see Kmart as a discount store which doesn¡¦t stand when other competitors have lower prices. Kmart¡¦s customer service and available products are two other items that Kmart fails to be a strong competitor in against these rivals. Therefore, the rivalry among the merchandising stores is a strong competitive force in this market. Another external force that affects the market is substitutes.
The success of Wal-Mart is so great, that many people believe that Wal-Mart is becoming a monopsony . Suppliers are forced to deal with Wal-Mart because of the large percentage of sales at Wal-Mart cash registers. As such, Wal-Mart also has the ability to dictate prices of the goods it receives from the suppliers. Every day, more and more retail stores close their doors for good because Wal-Mart controls such a huge margin of the retail sector.
Meijer, Inc. was established in 1934 by founder Hendrik Meijer opened his first store in Greenville, Michigan, he opened his first grocery store in Michigan during the great depression. Meijer currently has 200 stores located in 6 Midwest states; with headquarters in Walker, Michigan. Starting as a simple grocery store, the company has grown into a big box superstore that combines grocery shopping with department store shopping in the same facility. Supercenters are becoming more popular, but Hendrik Meijer had the first of its kind. Transitioning from grocery to a supercenter was the ideal step, and the first in the industry to expand on the concept.
Nordstrom segments are broken down into preference segments. There are three segments that Nordstrom has containing the following: homogeneous, diffused, and clustered. Homogeneous is a market with no natural segments. Diffused is a market with evenly distributed preferences with no concentration. Finally, a clustered market when natural segments exist and may be effectively targeted. Nordstrom’s segments focus on inside
By making the ordering & inventory reporting systems faster & more automated, Albertson's could drastically reduce costs and become more competitive with Wal-Mart. Albertson's main competitor is Wal-Mart. The biggest component of this rivalry is product cost and price. Because of their superior supply chain and extreme buying power, Wal-Mart is able to sell at lower prices and obtain higher profit margins. Another area of competition between the companies is the location and services available.
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.
Marshall Fields & Company was started in 1881, which moved to starting Dayton Dry Goods Store into the Dayton Co. The Dayton Co. enters into to the world of discount merchandising starting the first Target. Targets grew all over the United States.
First, Nordstrom is unique through its excelling customer service. As a full-service retailer, Nordstrom assists customers in every phase of the shopping process. Because they carry more specialty goods, customers will need and want more assistance leading to increased value of customer service. One of their policies is that they will accept any merchandise that people bring back without asking any questions. As a result, people feel more confident about purchasing products from there, since they can buy something with the comfort and knowledge that Nordstrom has an excellent return
An oligopoly is defined as "a market structure in which only a few sellers offer similar or identical products" (Gans, King and Mankiw 1999, pp.-334). Since there are only a few sellers, the actions of any one firm in an oligopolistic market can have a large impact on the profits of all the other firms. Due to this, all the firms in an oligopolistic market are interdependent on one another. This relationship between the few sellers is what differentiates oligopolies from perfect competition and monopolies. Although firms in oligopolies have competitors, they do not face so much competition that they are price takers (as in perfect competition). Hence, they retain substantial control over the price they charge for their goods (characteristic of monopolies).
Primark has a huge customer base for being one of the largest clothing retailer in the UK. Nonetheless, the bargaining power of buyers is relatively high due to the large quantity of competitors in the industry. Buyers are price sensitive and they will probably seek for the lowest price before purchasing an item. There is no switching cost in the market so customers are likely to buy products in other store once they discover a cheaper price.
Monopolies are when there is only one provider of a specific good, which has no alternatives. Monopolies can be either natural or artificial. Some of the natural monopolies a town will see are business such as utilities or for cities like Clarksville with only one, hospitals. With only one hospital and there not being another one for a two hour drive, Clarksville’s hospital has a monopoly on emergency care, because there is not another option for this type of service in the area. Artificial monopolies are created using a variety of means from allowing others to enter the market. Artificial monopolies are generally rare or absent because of anti-trust laws that were designed to prevent this in legitimate businesses. However, while these two are the ends of the spectrum, the majority of businesses wil...
A Monopoly is a market structure characterised by one firm and many buyers, a lack of substitute products and barriers to entry (Pass et al. 2000). An oligopoly is a market structure characterised by few firms and many buyers, homogenous or differentiated products and also difficult market entry (Pass et al. 2000) an example of an oligopoly would be the fast food industry where there is a few firms such as McDonalds, Burger King and KFC that all compete for a greater market share.
Markets have four different structures which need different "attitudes" from the suppliers in order to enter, compete and effectively gain share in the market. When competing, one can be in a perfect competition, in a monopolistic competition an oligopoly or a monopoly [1]. Each of these structures ensures different situations in regards to competition from a perfect competition where firms compete all being equal in terms of threats and opportunities, in terms of the homogeneity of the products sold, ensuring that every competitor has the same chance to get a share of the market, to the other end of the scale where we have monopolies whereby one company alone dominates the whole market not allowing any other company to enter the market selling the product (or service) at its price.
With Nordstrom, everything starts with the hiring process. Their hiring strategy is to recruit sales employees who are motivated, but also nice (Spector