Case: Pepe Jeans
Pepe Jeans began to produce and sell denim jeans in the early 1970s in the United Kingdom and has achieved enormous growth. The company maintains contact with its independent retailers via group of 10 agents and each agent is responsible for retailers in a particular area of the country. Pepe is convinced that a good relationship with the independent retailers is vital to its success.
The survey of the independent retailers indicated some problems. It was felt that Pepe’s variety of styles and quality was the company’s key advantage over the competition. However the independents were unhappy with Pepe’s requirement to place firm orders six months in advance with no possibility amendments, cancellation, or repeat ordering. Some claimed that the inflexible order system forced them to order less, resulting in stock outs. Pepe felt that a change was going to be needed soon. The easiest solution would be work with the Hong Kong sourcing agent to reduce the lead time associated with orders but this was going to increase the cost significantly. Even with the significant increase in cost, consistent delivery schedules would be difficult to keep. Another suggestion was to build a finishing operation in United Kingdom. Pepe was interested to see how system worked at U.S. operations. They found that they would have to keep about six weeks’ supply of basic jeans on hand in the United Kingdom and they have to invest £1,000,000 worth of equipment. They also estimated that it would cost about £500,000 to operate the facility each year. They could locate the facility in the basement of current office building, and the renovations would cost £300,000.
Today’s operations management many companies outsource. Companies have ...
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...one Dell computer, one Microsoft and one Cisco System -- and oh, by the way, after that we got $2 billion left over."
• 35: The number of Wal-Mart Supercenters in China.
• $15 billion: The amount of Chinese products Wal-Mart estimates it imports each year; others suggest the number may be higher.
• $120 billion: The U.S. trade deficit with China in 2003.
• 8 percent: The amount of total U.S. retail sales, excluding automobiles, accounted for by Wal-Mart.
• $9.98: The average full-time hourly wage for a Wal-Mart employee. The average full-time hourly wage in metro areas (defined as areas with a population of 50,000 or more) is $10.38. In some urban areas it is higher: $11.03 in Chicago, $11.08 in San Francisco, and $11.20 in Austin
Reference:
1) Always Low Prices by Sam Hornblower
2) Secrets of Wal-Mart’s Success www.pbs.org
3) http://www.michaelbergdahl.net
In Deenu Parmar's "Labouring the Wal Mart Way," the author discusses the business practices of Wal Mart, their impact on systemic poverty, and on existing work unions. Their business model forces competition to align with them, or close up shop. Wal Mart hires workers that would usually have a difficult time finding employment. That said, they pay them well below a living wage. Staff are also subject to abuses like overtime without pay. Wal Mart is resolute in their feelings towards unions. Their hiring process designed to cut out union sympathizers. This way, they can prevent any retaliation from staff seeking a better work environment. If anti-union efforts are unsuccessful, they close the store. It also forces existing unions to take pay
This nationally recognized mass merchandiser that stood as Kohl’s other leading adversary in the market has everyday low prices that were able to compete with Kohl’s promotional events. Wal-Mart also outdid their competition when it came to number of store locations around the country. The weaknesses of this reputable company come to light when shoppers are looking to buy clothes and are not presented with nearly the selection that the department store can offer. Also, their service is not considered to be as helpful as the department stores that can input more expertise when trying on
o Shoes and clothing - $125 billion. o Electronics and appliances - $85 billion. o
For 2004, Wal-Mart earned 256 billion in revenues which from sales alone was 26 billion.
Today Wal-mart has a higher GDP than the entire country of Switzerland, but don’t worry they’re pretty neutral about it. But there has also been news about how they treat there employees. In 2004 an article was released entitled Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart, and soon after Washington got involved. The bad publicity took a toll on Wal-mart and in fact is still today, Maryland passed a law in January, 2006, that said larger employers, such as Wal-mart, must spend at least 8% of their payroll on health benefits for their employees, and now many other states have followed suit. The bad publicity also made it so 8% of customers shop elsewhere because of what they’ve heard, this has caused lower expected sales around the holidays during 2004, and 2005. Some things they’ve done is in 2006 they paid employees on average 9.36 dollars, while other major retailers like Target and Sears pay on average 11.08 dollars. While this can be easily denied by Wal-mart, another way they have gained bad publicity is from something called off-the-clock work. If they had not finished their job they had to clock out and then still finish their job, meaning they wouldn’t get paid for
With Wal-Mart being so outrageously huge in this short of time, I believe that it has not yet settled into their customers why Wal-Mart is so cheap. Wal-Mart will replace higher wage jobs with lower wage jobs and require taxpayer assistance to keep Wal-Mart employees out of poverty. Numerous studies reveal that, contrary to the company's PR, Wal-Mart does not create new jobs when it comes to town. Wal-Mart simply replaces higher paying retail jobs with lower paying ones and, due to its adverse impact upon local businesses, may actually cause a net decrease in job numbers. The factories in China supply their employees with a whopping three dollar...
It’s the largest private employer in USA. And every year approximately of 93% shopping is done from Wal-Mart in America.
Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and second largest corporation. It is the largest private employer in the United States and Mexico. Wal-Mart is the largest grocery retailer in the United States, with an estimated 20% of the retail grocery and consumables business, and the largest toy seller in the United States, with an estimated 45% of the retail toy business, having surpassed Toys"R" Us in the late 1990s. Wal-Mart has 1,929 stores which as of 2005 sales figures totaled about $155,477,000,000 in sales. Wal-Marts revenue as of 2006 was an estimated $315,654 billion USD, net income $11.231billion USD, and employs more than 1.8 million employees.1
The minimum wage for HEB is $11.00 a hour. On top of that, HEB recently introduced the partner stock plan. Now Partners can start investing money, and become owners. Now, while Walmart may not start employees off at $11.00 an hour. Both however do offer full time employees medical, dental, and vision. Employees from both receive discount card with takes off 10% off items, they are eligible for the 401K retirement plan. HEB and Walmart work hand and hand with employees who are in school, working around their employees class schedules. To top it off, both companies even offer select scholarships to their student
Jeans were just one of the different categories of pants along with casual pants and dress pants, and jeans had dominated the category until the 1990's when sales had tapered off when consumers migrated over to khakis, cargo pants, and other types of pants. However, when new innovations in fabrics and style in the jeans category came to the forefront in 2001, people's tastes began to switch back over to jeans. In 2002, jeans sales were predicted to grow by 2-3%.
Today Wal-Mart servers around 130 Million people world wide and it has employees over 1.3 million people across the globe. They have been increase in growth of sales over 11% which amounted $6.4 billion US dollars. The earnings of the Wal-Mart are far ahead of its French competitors Carrefour although it is having its branches in 32 countries it earning and saving far behind. With wide range of suppliers the Wal-Mart has it has been one of the successful retail chains in the world today.
JCPenney is a chain of American mid-range department stores that is based out of Texas that started over 100 years ago. JCPenny has been successful for most of its time up until the last three to four years. The company is trying relentlessly to overcome the lingering effects of the makeover that former CEO, Ron Johnson, had implemented in order for the company to take a new direction in hopes of increasing sales. The new CEO, Myron Ullman, has taken a close look into the markets demographic segmentation along with the income segmentation in order to attempt to return the retailer back to its old self, which is to appeal to middle-market customers. A couple issues of major concern for the company are the dissolving of Johnson’s Boutiques, the price of their products, and overall revenue.
With its headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart was commissioned in the hands of its founder Sam Walton. Generally, the Wal-Mart effect is structured in a manner that it aids economic experts to evaluate attached global and local economic effects to the famous Wal-Mart retail. The term Wal-Mart effect is often employed by analysts to refer to the wide variety of both negative and positive influences of the retail business (Hiltzik 1). Evaluation of the retail’s effects is significant as the business is not only a key figure is the world’s economy but also it is arguably the most performing private economic retail. Briefly, Wal-Mart has conventionally caught the eyes of consumers since it not only boosts their experience by suburbanizing local shopping but also it avails low commodity prices for necessities (Neumark, Junfu, and Stephen 406).
$17.50 sounds like a pretty good hourly wage, especially to someone employed at Walmart making only about $12.83. This is Hawaiis’ hourly wage equivalent when someone is on welfare. Granted this is the highest hourly wage equivalent, but all states offer an hourly wage equivalent greater than minimum wage. Someone can accumulate a higher “income” if they sit on their bottom at home than if they go out and work for a living. This makes it hard for anyone to have an incentive to work.
Penney's approach to strategy is best measured using a SWOT analysis, which maps out the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. For instance, J.C. Penney's strengths include a strong liquidity position, an efficient supply chain, and a broad product and service offering. J.C. Penney's liquidity position grew to lend the industry from 2014 to 2015 (J.C. Penney Company, Inc., 2015). Strong liquidity against its competitors provides J.C. Penney with an advantage while funding any potential opportunity that arises in the market. Its supply chain facilitates the flow of goods between two thousand four hundred domestic and foreign suppliers, distributors, and stores (J.C. Penney Company, Inc., 2015). Its efficiency enables J.C. Penney to generate higher margins, which allows for lower prices for customers. Moreover, it allows the business to operate in a cost effective manner. The broad product and service offerings help the company serve the diverse needs and preferences of its customers. J.C. Penney also has the largest apparel, home furnishing, and general merchandise catalog in the United States (J.C. Penney Company, Inc.,