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Monopolistic Competition

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Submitted By fizzah
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Assignment 2: Operations Decisions
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Aug 13, 2015

Low-calorie Frozen Food Industry
Low –calorie foods are those with 40 calories or less per serving. The low calorie frozen foods is the choice for a healthy and easy to cook meal. There are several choices of low calorie frozen, microwaveable food products available in the market nowadays (Creasy, 2015). This implies that the market structure is somewhere between a monopolistic and oligopolistic competition, leaning more towards monopolistic competition (Economicsonline.co.uk, 2015). The low-calorie frozen food products available in the market are relatively similar with slight differentiation amongst them.
Leading Competitors
The lifestyle of people has changed considerably over the years. A hundred years ago there was no such thing as frozen foods or microwaves for that matter. With the advent of technology, people have become accustomed to a certain way and standard of living. One such change is the way we cook our food, People have abandoned the traditional way of cooking on a gas or electric stove and gotten used to microwaving their food. Furthermore, there are a few hundred low-calorie food meal choices available today. There are names like Lean Cuisine and Weight Watchers who have been around for years, and now new entrants like Healthy Choice by ConAgra have joined their ranks (BURROS, 2015). Lean Cuisine is a brand owned by Nestle, it deals with providing frozen dinner across the USA for approximately 35 years (Nestle USA). It is one of the most prominent and leading competitors in the low-calorie frozen food market. Another important name in this market is that of ConAgra. Their newly manufactured brand of healthy frozen foods called “Healthy Choice” is a chief competitor.
When trying to outline the market structure for any industry it is important to pinpoint the

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