Kroger does very well at providing superior shopping experiences for its customers. It has friendly staffs, quality products and superior services. Of course, it still has some deficiencies, and there are also have some other stores have competitive advantages compare with it. Meijer Lake Lansing is the biggest competitor of Kroger East Lansing. And we are interested in how these two stores following the new rules of retailing; and also concern about how Kroger should do in order to grab market share from Meijer.
PART ONE: SELECTION OF COMPETITOR THROUGH CUSTOMER-CENTRIC RESEARCH
I did the research on Friday, October 2ed, 2015. And I interviewed 15 customers who made purchased at Kroger on this Friday afternoon. And …show more content…
Kroger do offer some customized products in the store. Kroger has a Sushi Bar, customers can see the menu in front of the sushi bar, and the chef makes sushi under customer’s requirement and can serves the customer immediately. Customer can make special requests about what kind of sushi they want exactly. In addition to Sushi Bar, Kroger also has an Olive Bar. Customers can take what they want from the Olive Bar and put them into one box. And in dessert section, customers also can order special cakes if they want. Both of them are also the examples of …show more content…
Democratize your retail business
Kroger and Meijer both does some democratization but not a lot. Both of customers from Meijer and Kroger can buy good quality of product with lower price if they use coupon or loyalty card. But Kroger goes farther than Meijer in produce category. As a grocery store, it is good to work with local farmers to reduce the cost of its produces, but I think Kroger can sign contracts with local farmers, and build its own Kroger brand produce, which can get cheaper prices.
CONCLUSION
Both Kroger and Meijer have their own competitive advantages and competitive disadvantages. It stills needs to takes long way for Kroger to follow the ten rules of retailing. It is important to know how to gain competitive advantages and eliminate competitive disadvantages in good ways. Kroger is a grocery store, it should mainly focus on grocery not electronic, home goods and others. So it can’t just copy what Meijer does to gain competitive advantages. Kroger should do its own business with its unique strategy combined with a little bit of other’s