Evergreen case study questions 6-8

6.What are the characteristics of the industry that the company is in and how is the industry changing over time?

The supermarket industry tends to non-cyclical, which means that the stocks stay constant as the market rises and falls. While consumers will always need to replenish their food pantries, they now have many different options of stores to choose from. They can stop at convenient stores, traditional grocery stores, a specialty store such as Trader Joes, or a national store such as Wal-Mart. This is great from the stand point of the consumer, but makes for a highly competitive environment for grocery owners that are trying to make their stores stand out. Consumers used to go to a local grocery store where the manager knew their wants and stocked accordingly. These days there isn't that same relationship between the shop owners and their customers. The number of stores under one management has grown and business owners are having to study what their customers are needing from afar.

7. What is the firm's strategy for differentiation, enabling them to compete within the context of their industry?

The Evergreen stores targeted consumer is "highly educated, upper income, informed, and health conscious". The stores are smaller than the big box stores, but are made up of 65% perishables compared to traditional supermarkets. Perishables tend to have higher margins than other products. Evergreen has heavily relied upon differentiation through quality and customer service. Customers know that they are going into a knowledgeable store where the employees give excellent customer service and can answer questions about where their food is coming from. If you go into Wal-Mart and asked a worker if they knew what farm the food came from, they would probably laugh at you. At an Evergreen store, the