Comparison Of Food Retailers – Target, Walmart, Albertson, And Rosauers

Target’s Food Products and Strategy

Question:

Compare specific products of these four retailers supercenters limited Target, Wal-Mart, Albertson and  Rosauers?

There are many types of food retailers that became popular in the U.S., such as supercenters, limited assortment supermarkets, and warehouse clubs. When we compare the retailer’s food products, we will see that these retailers are different. For example if we compare some food products of four food retailers like Target, Wal-Mart, Albertson, and Rosauers we find that each one of these food retailers have their unique strategy and  approach. The best way to understand alterations between these strategies is to compare specific products of these four retailers. The products that we will compare are milk, beef, bread, and yogurt.

Target is the second biggest supercenter in the U.S. They are able to provide high quality products with good prices. Based on their image and strategy, people go to buy milk from Target. They provide a wide variety of milk and milk alternatives. Their dairy milk offerings are whole milk, low fat milk, and fat free milk. They also offer organic milk, lactose free milk, and flavored milk having chocolate or strawberry flavor. For milk alternatives they provide soy milk, rice milk, and coconut milk. These categories have deep collection that specifies flavors, and vitamin enhancement. They have a big variety of milk products compared to other food retailers and a wide assortment that covers every type of milk people would normally buy from the market.

Another product to analyze at Target is fresh beef products. They sell a variety of fresh beef that are divided into ground beef; beef steaks or other cuts, and combined with meat combination packs. Each category has different fat levels, and different kinds of beef. For example, sirloin, and flank are types of beef steaks that they offer. Although they offer adequate varieties of beef products, but a lot of organic or grass-fed beef options were not offered. 

In addition, we see wide varieties of bread products being offered by Target. They sell sandwich breads, bagel, French breads, hamburger buns, hotdogs buns, English muffins, corn tortillas, flour tortillas, dinner rolls, country rolls, and pita bread. These breads have wide assortment that like wheat or white, and it can be with added grains cinnamon, raisins, or blueberries.

Furthermore, yogurt is another good example in Target. They have whole fat, low fat, and fat free yogurt options. Some of the products have flavors like strawberries, blueberries, or added honey. Moreover, they sell a few options of organic yogurt, and they have some yogurt sizes that are bigger than 32oz.

Target sells a distinctive type of product brands that will be limited to their stores. According to Margulies, Ron, “Because Target has exclusive rights to sell these items; it’s able to create its own niche in the grocery category.” They have a special supply chain that will provide them exclusive milk products that is considered high quality. In consequence, their prices are slightly higher than other supercenters. For example, a whole milk is selling for $3.99 which is high compared to the other food retailers, and they have some sandwich bread that sells for $5.79 which is higher compared to the others.

Walmart’s Food Products and Strategy

Target is a self-service retailer, but they try to provide a great shopping experience with friendly staffs that are willing to help and assist customers. Target is focusing on hiring diverse employees with different backgrounds in U.S., which is considered a “melting pot” country; to enjoy their shopping experience and to build a strong relationship with customers from every background. When Target focus on this direction, they will create a socially responsible image around the nation. They also have a multichannel retailing through advanced website and mobile application that is useful for browsing their products or buying online grocery goods. Their app won an award for the best in design, easiness, and efficiency. Target has three locations in Spokane area in the north, south and valley area. Their intention is to cover most of Spokane area neighborhoods. Moreover there are not many stores in Spokane because their target customers are adequate for these chosen locations.

Besides the great services they offer, Target has an exciting design of their stores that is unique and distinctive. Their purpose is to create enjoyable, simple and comfortable design that differentiates them from others. Blackwelder said, “More than 80% praise Target’s layout, agreeing that they never have trouble finding products they are searching.”  This shows that Target is a very organized food retailer.

Target used various promotions. The most popular was advertisements. They have intended to promote their brand especially in special events such as Christmas, and Thanksgiving holidays. They have offered special deals and offers for these events. Target’s advertisements focused on young professional people who are looking for high value products. Hiesy declared, “It may not sell $20 extra-extra-virgin olive oils, but it may offer several flavored olive oils at $6.”(Hiesy) That means Target is trying to sell products that is considered high quality with reasonable prices. They can provide value to their customers when they established a youthful and fun environment in their stores.

Walmart is considered the biggest retailer in the United States. Their revenue in 2014 was $476,294 million with 1.8% growth from 2013. Their strategy is to help customers save money by selling discounted products. According to Levy and Weitz the writes of Retailing Management book “Walmart operates more than 3,000 supercenters in the United Sates.” This show how big their business is and how they are serving a huge number of U.S population.

When we compare their products with other retailers we find that they have the biggest variety and assortments of products. They provide a huge range of milk and milk products in stores, such as whole fat milk, low fat milk, and fat free milk. These types of milk can be offered in special flavors, and characteristics, such as lactose free, gluten free, or organic. In addition, they provide lots of milk alternatives products such as rice milk, coconut milk, soya milk, and vegan milk. They also sell varieties of fresh beef products like ground beef, beef bone in steaks, beef boneless steaks, beef ribs, beef filet, and roast beef. Some of these beef varieties can be organic or grass fed. Besides they vary in fat percentage and cut styles. The third product of comparison is bread. They have a big section for sandwich bread which comes in different sizes and tastes. They also provide roll bread, hamburger bun bread, hotdog bun bread, croissant, artisan bread, tortillas, and pita wraps. These breads are offered in wheat, white, multi- grained, with added raisins, low fat, or dairy free and gluten-free bread to satisfy people who follow the gluten-free diet.

Albertson’s Food Products and Strategy

Furthermore, yogurt selections at Walmart are massive. They provide low fat, fat free and whole fat yogurt. They can be Greek, organic, kosher (satisfy Jewish requirements); gluten free, natural, and low sodium which satisfy many different needs of the society.

When people go grocery shopping at Walmart, they expect a self-service which they get. The employees do not ask customers if they need help or have any questions; however, they are always willing to help customer when they need assistance. They offer phone service where they answer question about products and prices. They have a Website and an App for e-commerce shopping. They provide information about products’ prices, varieties, and brands. They also assort offers and deals for sales and coupons. Doug McMillon the President and chief executive of Walmart stated, “We’re also intent on creating transformative growth by adding capabilities in e-commerce and mobile commerce.”(Doug McMillon, 5). Walmart is focusing on e- commerce shopping in recent years. They want to have a great Internet service for people who prefer shopping online by satisfying different needs and wants, and allowing people to get more information about products. When it comes to their promotion, Walmart offers many deals that help customers to save money. Besides the Internet service, Walmart offer 24hours shopping which is one of the fewest that offer this type of service around the U.S.

In Spokane area, Walmart is located in 5 locations that are distributed between north, west, south, and Spokane valley area.  Their goal is to cover most areas in Spokane to serve the mass market.

Additionally, Wal-Mart’s design is simple and basic. They do not focus on colors or decoration. All Walmart supercenters are organized and clean. They tend to go for practical designs that are good enough for their business goals.

From the products comparisons, Wal-Mart’s target market is middle to low class people who care about saving money and evaluates the alternatives. Wal-Mart’s target people’s lifestyle is different from other retailers. Most of them thinks about saving for the future and are financially insecure. The annual report of Walmart indicates, “Customers choose Walmart for our broad assortment, including national brands and locally relevant merchandise, at everyday low prices (EDLP).” Customers shop from Wal-Mart because they want to get decent products with great prices, and Wal-Mart’s deals help them feel smart about spending money, they have created EDLP strategy for spending less money in grocery shopping. This strategy ensures that their prices are not necessarily the lowest but are somehow low compared to others.

Many retailers try to understand their strategy of offering less prices because it have been an advantage for them to offer low prices for same products that is existing in other retailers. Because they have been focusing only on offering best prices their business profit became good, but they have ignored some important business decisions when it comes to social responsibilities and the company image. They can improve their image by increasing employee wage or sponsoring some community events.

Rosauers’ Food Products and Strategy

The first Albertson store was opened in Idaho, and the founder Joe Albertson was working at Safeway before he opened his store. Albertson is a conventional super market that carries about 30,000 SKU. When we compare their milk products they have an average variety and assortments. They offer whole milk, 2% milk, 1% milk and fat free milk. They even have milk alternatives such as soy milk, rice milk, and Almond milk. They tend to cover most of people’s needs, but they don’t offer a lot of assortments to choose from each milk category. They lean towards small packs of milk rather than large 1-gallon milk.

Beef is another product to look into. They provide an average variety and assortment of beef products compared to supercenters. They provide fresh ground beef, sirloin, beef steaks- boneless or with bones. Their beef offers are not so many to choose from. They can cover household needs but maybe not wants. Indeed, that is also the situation when it comes to their bread collections. They have sandwich bread, Focaccia bread, artisan bread, and English muffins. Their bread selections can be wheat, white, or multigrain. Even their yogurt choices are not big either. They have Greek yogurt, flavored yogurt, and fat free yogurt. They do not offer a lot of sizes and flavors.

Albertsons prices are considered reasonable. For example the highest price for Albertsons sandwich bread is $4.99 and other retailer are above $5. Also, ½ gallon organic milk is $3.49 which is a reasonable price compared to Target $4.49.

Albertsons is also a self-service retail food store. Customers can ask questions and get help only if they ask employees. Besides their store service, Albertson conduct a multichannel retailing for customers. They have a great website and mobile application so customers can search for information and buy products from them. In their website they illustrate deals, sales, and coupons options for customers, and the website has advertisements and what’s new in their store.

When it comes to their store design, customers find it clean and basic and have a unique and special design. They go for a more comfortable laid back design. In Albertsons, it is easy to find needed products because of its size and its clear and simple design.

Moreover, there are 6 Albertson’s stores in Spokane which cover many neighborhoods in Spokane area.  When analyzing their vision statements, it is clear that they have a geographic target market. They directed their business to serve many neighborhoods and be their best choice for easy weakly grocery shopping. They satisfy their customers when they provide a decent size store. Customers can find it easier and faster to find what they need. Offering an average variety of products for customers can be a disadvantage. Many customers will go to supercenters where they can have more options especially they have comparable prices and qualities to supercenters. Albertson can overcome their challenges by offering either lower prices or better qualities. Their business position in customer’s minds will be more understandable when they improve their qualities or lower prices by that way they will be known either for these two characteristics.

Rosauers is a unique retail store offer mostly food products, they have 21 stores around the U.S, and it’s headquarter is in Spokane WA. It is considered a conventional food retailer that offers high quality food products. Their milk product varieties are average. They provide whole milk, 2% milk, 1% milk, and fat free milk. And they have chocolate milk flavor, organic, and lactose free. Their milk varieties are sufficient, but they are in scarcity when it comes to wide assortments.

 The beef products they offer are of high quality, with fewer varieties compared to supercenters. They have ground beef with different fat percentage, and different kinds of beef steaks such as sirloin and chuck beef stakes.

Their bread quality is high but variety is not much available. They provide a delicious selection of bread such as, sandwich bread, bagel, English muffins, burger buns, hot dog buns, and many styles of French bread. They also offer some bread crisps that are flavored or plain. The breads can be wheat, white, or multigrain. They don’t provide many options of organic bread or gluten free bread.

Also, Rosauers have a decent selection of yogurt. They have different sizes Form less than 5.3oz to 32oz, and they can be whole fat, low fat, fat free, flavored, Greek or organic.

Rosauers prices are the highest. Looking at one product example, they sell a flavored 5.3oz yogurt for 1.29-3.99, whereas Targets sell it for $1.14 and Albertsons for $1.33.

Rosauers is also a self-service retailer, but their employees are always willing to help customers to find products and ask questions. According to their website, “Our knowledgeable staff is happy to answer any question our customers might have and are always willing to assist with searching for the right product.” Rosauers also have an online website service to provide information about their products. Their website specifies sales promotion like coupons, gift cards, and loyalty cards. Furthermore, they have advertised their company on T.V to promote their business and inform people about their products.

When people visit Rosauers they get excited about their unique and classy design inside the store. The store design helps them to protect Rosauers image and position. In addition, it helps them to satisfy the target market who is looking for a high quality and sophisticated food retailer. Rosauers target market is middle to upper class people who have a higher income than average American. Also, their target market’s lifestyle is different from others because they have certain opinion and behaviors about food and food qualities.

Rosauers will provide value to their customers when they provide best food quality as promised, it is stated in their website,” We pride ourselves on providing our customers with only the highest quality products.” Because they offer high quality food products, their prices are high compared to other food retailers and this can be a disadvantage for them. To cover this problem, they can try to lower their costs by changing their supply chain, or produce a private label brand that offers an organic or natural food products.

Milk	Target	Walmart	Albertsons	Rosauers
Whole	3.99		1.99	3.89
1%	3.99		1.99	3.79
Fat free	3.99		1.99	2.79-3.79
Almond	3.04		2.99
½g organic	4.49		3.49

Beef	Target	Walmart	Albertsons	Rosauers
Ground beef per pound	4-6		4.99	4.50/4.55
Chuck	6.99		5.99-6.99	5.99per pound
Sirloin	7.99		9.99	5.99 per pound

Yogurt	Target	Walmart	Albertsons	Rosauers
Organic	3.69
Flavored 5.3oz	.99-1.14		1.33	1.29-2.29
32-35oz	6.49		3.69	2.29-3.99

Bread	Target	Walmart	Albertsons	Rosauers
Sandwich	1.3-5.79		1.99-4.99	1.39-5.29
Burger bun	1.49-3.49		2.99	4.29
Bagel	2.99			4.69
English muffins			2.49	3.49

Reference

Hisey, P. (2003). A glimpse of target’s food strategy. Progressive Grocer, 82(1), 19. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/220963153?accountid=7305

Blackwelder, J. (2006). Why customers keep coming back to target. Retailing Today, 45(22), 3-3,26. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/228487221?accountid=7305

Margulis, R. (2012). Here comes TARGET. Canadian Grocer, 126(9), 38-42,44. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1223377259?accountid=7305

Gallagher, J. (2014). Walmart, target neck and neck in SN price check. Supermarket News, Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1494679003?accountid=7305

https://cdn.corporate.walmart.com/66/e5/9ff9a87445949173fde56316ac5f/2014-annual-report.pdf

https://www.albertsons.com/our-company/traditions-history/

https://www.albertsons.com/our-company/our-mission/

Rosauers supermarkets, inc – company capsule. (2013). (). Basingstoke: Progressive Digital Media. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1552674190?accountid=7305