Supermarkets in Kansas City area
A group of investors in your city is considering opening a new upscale supermarket to compete with the major supermarket chains that are currently dominating the city’s marketplace. They have called you in to help them determine what kind of upscale supermarket they should open. In other words, how can they best develop a competitive advantage against existing supermarket chains?
Questions
1. List the supermarket chains in the Kansas City area, and identify their strengths and weaknesses.
2. What business-level strategies are these supermarkets currently pursuing?
3. What kind of supermarket would do best against the competition? What kind of business-level strategy should it pursue?
Sample Solution
The Kansas City Area is a business hub that has been identified by several supermarkets chains as a place to target. The supermarkets particularly target the ever-expanding groceries market although their are other areas of investment such as consumer goods, clothing and apparel, digital products, household goods and another foodstuff. There are several supermarkets in the Kansas City area including
- Marsh’s Sun Fresh
Market - Cosentino’s Market
- Hong Kong
Supermarket - El Rio Bravo
Supermarket - Trader Joe’s
- Save A Lot
- Hy-Vee
- Chinatown Food
Market - Price Chopper
- ALDI
- Walmart
Neighborhood Market - Cosentino’s Price
Chopper - Save A Lot
- Frontera’s
Supermarket
This supermarkets enjoy several strengths and weaknesses. Among the strengths is that the majority of the supermarkets are from large conglomerates that enjoy the economies of scale in their productions and distribution of goods. They have outstanding loyalty programs that if put to good use may retain their clientelle. Another advantage that supermarkets in the Kansas City Area enjoy is the fact that they have been there for quite a long period of time. As such, most of these supermarkets in Kansas city area have built a strong reputation among their customers, created a loyalty that may be difficult to break by a new entrant into the market. The chains literally enjoy loyalty due to their brand image and positioning in the market. While some of these supermarkets in Kansas city are aimed at targeting the youth are targeting the youth, others target the elderly while most still have everything for everyone under the same roof.
The weakness that most of the supermarkets have is their inability to change with the changing needs of their customers as well as not providing a platform for clients not only to give authentic interactive feedback but also a place to recommend what the customers may want to see stocked into the stores. The model of these supermarkets in Kansas City is majorly seeking solutions that may seem pleasing to the eyes of the customers through major assumptions. They have stuck to this traditional way of looking at things and have never adopted the new strategies.
