In a blog post by Bekki Windsperger, a Senior Customer Strategist on the SPSCommerce blog, wrote about the dominance of supermarket chains, and box stores in the grocery industry. These supermarket chains, such as; No Frills, and Safeway, along with big box stores such as Walmart, are dominating the industry due to their ability to stock high quantities of goods, as well as a wide variety of goods that can fulfill all of a customer’s needs. She also writes that while the major supermarket chains and box stores are able to have a competitive advantage over small and independent grocers, these stores can differentiate themselves from their dominate competitors, by differentiating their own stores to focus on quality, and local foods.
Personally, I agree with Bekki here with her idea that small time grocery stores need to differentiate from their larger competitors in order to be successful. Whenever I go to a store like Walmart for groceries, I am looking for deals on food and a wide variety of items that allows me to only have to travel to one store. However, there are times when I would like to buy fresh products, such as fruits and veggies, and I decide to shop at places such as the local Farmer’s Market, or if I would like fresh bread then I will go to a bakery instead of the supermarket. These are both examples of grocers and food retailers that I have encountered in life where they differentiate themselves from the larger competitors and target a single market that has less competition and rivals.
Overall, I think that Bekki has written a very helpful blog that can help teach small-time grocers, on ways that they can run a successful business, while still staying in food retail. Bekki argues her point effectively using many of the same tools that we have been taught in the Commerce 101 lectures, such as; Differentiation, Competitive Advantage, and Buyer Power.
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https://www.spscommerce.com/blog/author/bwindspergerspscommerce-com/
https://www.spscommerce.com/blog/battle-grocery-giants-smaller-grocers-spsa/
