Steve Oliver Maass purchased a grocery store that was in bankruptcy back in 1988, in Cotati, CA, mortgaging his house to come up with the payment of $200,000. Although he had no grocery store experience besides working in the produce department of one, he felt he could not do any worse than the previous owner did. The store was run down and a mess requiring a lot of cleaning. With limited funds, he was only able to paint instead of doing much remodeling, as he wanted to do. Maass renamed the store Oliver’s Market after his middle name, and he and his wife worked the store for the first four years. During those years, Oliver’s added a Service deli and a Health foods section. Following the format of Whole Foods, Oliver’s carried a section of organic health foods and included conventional items as well.
Oliver’s hires local workers and buys many locally produced goods, providing the local economy with more jobs and income. The key strategy of Oliver’s Market is to help sustain Sonoma County and encourage others to do so as well. Oliver’s bought 22.2 percent of its goods from within Sonoma County (Napa-Marin-Sonoma). The atmosphere within Oliver’s Markets is a casual and relaxed style with the employees wearing jeans and T-shirts and/or baseball caps with the Oliver’s logo.
Oliver’s opened its second store in April of 2000 in Santa Rosa, CA fashioning it after Woodlands Market, another Organic Health food store. Unfortunately, in the early 2000’s with the increase of discount superstores, club stores, dollar stores and drugstores, there was a decline in the traditional retailers’ market share from 82.3 percent down to 69.2 percent. Increases in giant retailers will be one of Oliver’s biggest competitive pressur...
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... has increased in Santa Rosa according to the U.S, Census Statistics. Although Oliver’s does not cater to them, their policy is to bring into the store items that customers wish to buy. Should Oliver’s consider expanding? I believe that they show the funds and the personal needed to open another store. With Steve not wishing to put in the hours that he has in the past, expanding beyond the three stores would be too much.
Works Cited
Napa-Marin-Sonoma, Northbay Biz. The Economics of Going Local . February 2012. 2 January 2014 .
Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, Strickland. "Oliver's Market." Business Policy and Strategy . McGraw-Hill, 2013. 367-386.
"The Economics of Going Local: Oliver’s Market as a Case Study"
http://www.oliversmarket.com/assets/files/goLocal-042111.pdf
The food market business is usually a difficult one, but online retailer Amazon's proceeding to purchase high-end chain Whole Foods changed the landscape. The new corporation is currently reducing prices, as well as Amazon is managing to reduce costs by taking its online expertise
RNRA Team, “Supermarkets, Fresh Produce and New Commodity Chains: What Future for the Small Producer?” Hot Topics: February, 2004.
Kudler Fine Foods is a store unlike any in the grocery industry. Kudler Fine Foods represents a store that could possibly spark a new era within the grocery world. The owner of Kudler Fine Foods, Kathy Kudler, has watched her dream of owning and operating a grocery store that specializes in fine quality food grow within a short period of time. The success of Kudler Fine Foods can be attributed to the innovative ideas, effective leadership, and organizational structure. The overall mission of Kudler Fine Food's "is to provide our customers the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparallel consumer environment. Our selections coupled with our experienced, helpful and knowledgeable staff, merge to offer each customer a delightful and pleasing shopping outing" (Apollo Group, 2003). Kudler has managed to maintain its mission statement by providing its customers with the best and as a result the company has flourished. "Kathy considers one of her key responsibilities to be that of identification of new gourmet items that can be offered in her stores (Apollo Group, 2003)." Therefore, Kathy is considering plans to contract with local growers of organic produce to yet obtain the best in quality products for her consumers and take her business to the next step. If Kathy makes the decision to contract with local growers then changes could be introduced into the company's overall structural organization. Each aspect of Kudler Fine Food's organizational structure from basic business process to the supply chain and quality control process will be affected by the formation of a contractual relationship with local organic growers.
In a market that is so dependent on nature and agriculture, it is reassuring to see a company that values the recompensing of materials back to the natural world. In order for Publix to remain successful, the company must carry the momentum that founder George “Mr.George” Jenkins originally started in 1930. The morals and philosophies that lie at the center of Publix Super Markets are integral to their success. Mr. George believed that customers and employees should be treated like family, and if their business model continues to accurately portray their core values, then they will continue to be successful. The question that looms over Publix is not “What can we change?” it is “What can we elaborate on?” Publix needs to use their positive image to expand into other communities. Publix is well-received in the public eye to the point that they are considered beneficial to a community. A marketing campaign that focused on bringing positive change to a struggling community through Publix and their charitable campaigns would create a want/need for the super market in new, untapped territory. Publix is lesser known in the Northern regions of the U.S., a nationwide marketing campaign would result in well-received
With regulations being set and laws enacted, the United States has seen a change for the better within the food industry and for the consumers overall. As a result, as much as a company is willing to cut on cost, without the consumers, every business in any industry will become bankrupt. The power is in the consumer and as long as consumers are educated properly and willing to speak up, there is a bright future ahead. However, because not everything can be seen, it is important to have books such as The Jungle and authors like Upton Sinclair to let people know what is going on and what not everyone is able to see. In doing so, this will raise awareness, create transparency and demand that companies practice ethically for the betterment of the
This is due to the symbiotic relationship Walmart has to its consumers, they are able to offer lower prices in more locations and consumers desire affordability and proximity. Despite the obvious domination of the economy by Walmart, less conventional producers and consumers are present and on the rise. Local rather than global and small rather than large, the increase of these less conventional manners of production can be seen in the increase abundance of farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), and community gardens. Farmers’ markets are common areas where farmers meet on a regular basis and sell various fresh produce directly to the consumers. The number of farmer’s markets between 1994 and 2014 has increased from around 2,000 to 8,000 (ers.usda,gov). Farmer’s offer an aesthetic that Walmart cannot provide—the opportunity to be personable. The consumer is able to see who grew the food, ask how it was grown, and will not be dazzled by fancy packaging or
During the late 1700’s, the United States was no longer a possession of Britain, instead it was a market for industrial goods and the world’s major source for tobacco, cotton, and other agricultural products. A labor revolution started to occur in the United States throughout the early 1800’s. There was a shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial market system. After the War of 1812, the domestic marketplace changed due to the strong pressure of social and economic forces. Major innovations in transportation allowed the movement of information, people, and merchandise. Textile mills and factories became an important base for jobs, especially for women. There was also widespread economic growth during this time period (Roark, 260). The market revolution brought about economic growth through new modes of transportation, an abundance of natural resources, factory production, and banking and legal practices.
..., John E., Strickland, A.J. Thompson, Arthur “Whole Foods Market In 2006: Mission, Core Values, and Strategy”, Crafting & Executing Strategy 15th Ed., McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2007
“Attention Whole Foods Shoppers” is an essay written by Robert Paarlberg for the May/June 2010 edition of Foreign Policy magazine. Foreign Policy was originally founded in 1970 with the intention of providing views on American foreign policy during the Vietnam war and does more or less of the same today. Paarlberg’s purpose in this essay is to convince an educated western audience that the Green Revolution was not a failure and improved life everywhere it took place, organic food having advantages over non-organic food is a myth, and the solution to food disparity is investing into agriculture modernization. With logos as the main mode of appeal, Paarlberg’s organization effectively sets up his points throughout the essay with consistently
The competitive pressures that Oliver’s Market must be prepared to deal with are the pressure associated with the market maneuvering and jockeying for buyer patronage that goes on among rival sellers in the industry and the pressure associated with the threat of new entrants into the market. They must be prepared to face with the rival stores, Trader Joe’s, Costco, and Whole Foods who had recently entered in the sales territory with brand new stores and so far Wal-Mart and Target also had announced plans to develop regional supercenter, that is, large –format discount center into their territory.
The targeted goal set by Joe’s is to reach an increase of organic product by an outstanding 30%. A selling point for many people in today’s market is whether or not the food or the product is safe for them. Recently people have discovered that organic foods tend to be much better for the body and give more nutrients than inorganic does. So by achieving the goal of increasing organic products by 30% Joe’s will be targeting a much larger market to whom people only consume organic products, also they will see an increase in their target market, due to the stigma behind organic food within younger
The Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc a company where their headquarters is based in the United States , also doing business internationally with facilities in Europe, Asia and South America. They are a manufacturing company what produced well known products to individuals and industries. This company is experiencing a great deal of trouble with their internal Payable Audit System (PAS) and how it would purchase goods; receive goods and pays for them. They are challenged with the redundancy and the lack of productivity to their system. They were finding ways to lower costs and eliminating steps in how these processes are getting accomplished. They decided that they needed to change their system and the way they did things at their business. There are some people, their roles and departments that will be closely involved with the process of this project. Some of these important roles will come from Ted Anderson director of disbursements, Peter Shaw the user project manager and Linda Watkins project director for the Payable Audit System (PAS). In addition, the Steering Group and the IS management department will have some important roles to the project too. Finally, there will be several major problems with the development of the project and how the one person would deal with these issues.
Kroger Timeline. (2013). In Progressive Grocer, 92(10), 30-52. Retrieved January 28, 2014. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.southuniversity.libproxy.edmc.edu/ehost/detail?sid=e0985541-de1c-4587-93a3-fa8be9bac40f%40sessionmgr114&vid=1&hid=127&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=bth&AN=91527502
In 6600 BC wine was first found, and throughout time wine surely grew into one of the leading money creating industry in Sonoma County. Without wine in Sonoma County it would not be called wine county. The history of wine was a big revelation and little did they know wine became a leading indicator in Sonoma county. So poor a glass of wine and sit back, relax, and enjoy. And think about the money that you are giving the economy.
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].