...Competition among the North American Warehouse Clubs: Costco Wholesale Club vs. BJ’s Wholesale Overview Costco and BJ’s are both wholesale stores. They offer a variety of products sold in case lots, furniture, food, household products, clothing, books, DVD’s, and many other bulk products. They limit their products to brand names and store product names. They offer bulk items at a lower cost than a typical grocery store. They are kept in warehouse stores which cost the companies less with cheaper shelving and store lighting fixtures. Low operating costs allows these wholesalers to charge much lower prices. These warehouses are very attractive for business owners, caterers and non profit organizations. They can get their products of greater quantity at a much lower cost. There are more than 1250n warehouses in Mexico, Canada and the U.S. 56% percent of them alone are in the United States. These warehouses have competed with Kohl’s, Target, Office Depot, Best Buy and Wal-Mart to name a few. The first warehouse was introduced by Sol Price in San Diego California in 1976. They lost money in their first year of operation but by 1979 had 2 stores. Before then they experimented with a retailer called Fed-Mart. Jim Sinegal who is the cofounder and CEO of Costco worked for Fed-Mart as a teenager. When Sinegal was 26 Sol Price made him the manager of the original store in San Diego. The first Costco store opened in 1983 the same year Sam’ Club opened. By 1984 there were 9 Costco stores...
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...Warehouse Club Industry is based on factors such as price, merchandise quality and selection, location, and member service. They also had competition from retail discounters like Wal-Mart and Dollar General, general merchandise chains like Target and Kohl’s, specialty chains like Office Depot and Staples in office supplies and Best Buy in electronics and DVDs, supermarkets, gasoline stations, and Internet retailers. The strongest competitive industry force is competition between like firms. This is because all three of the wholesale clubs are so similar. They all had low prices, warehouses ranging from 70,000 to 130,000 sq ft (some up to 160,000), and very low operating costs, sell products in bulk packaging and offer membership. They are all so alike that it pretty came down to which ever store a customer went to first they would stick with. All three wholesale clubs have similar strategies. They sold high-quality brand-name merchandise at prices that were significantly lower than those at supermarkets, discount retail chains, department stores, drugstores, and specialty retail stores like Best Buy. But BJ’s expanded their strategy a little more. It focused on its Inner Circle members through merchandising strategies that emphasized a customer-friendly shopping experience. Club locations were clustered in order to benefit from greater name recognition and maximize the efficiencies of management support, distribution, and marketing activities. BJ’s strove to...
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...all three warehouse club rivals-Costco, Sam’s and BJ’s wholesale – have highly similar strategies? No; What differences intheir strategies are apparent? Costco is providing items in bulk and at low prices; consumers gravitate toward discounting hoping to get the most out of their money. Sam’s is decreasing product costs by buying from low cost labor countries like China and Mexico. BJ’s is focusing on retail shoppers offering more grocery items and smaller quantities of packaged goods. Does one rival have a better strategy than the others? I think Costco has the best strategy due to the cost efficient distribution through the use of the cross dock distribution. Cross docking allows the club has the ability to minimize inventory, improve product quality and increase responsiveness to any changes in the market conditions. Does one rival have a somewhat weaker strategy than the other two? Yes; BJ’s because they’re not as popular and they’re concentrated in the Eastern United States, which allows the company tostreamline distribution and marketing. They’re also not benefiting from the economies of scales, because the margins are very thinand making low costs/high volumes are essential to profitability. 3. Which of the three warehouse club rivals has the strongest financial performer in recent years? See attached. Sam’s has a favorable Operating Profit Margin and CAGR operating income; Costco has a favorable Asset Turnover and CAGR Total Assets and BJ’s has favorable CAGR total...
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...American Warehouse Clubs Date: 7-08-2012 | 1. Competition like in the North American wholesale club industry: - In North America discount warehouse and whole club segment has $125 billion market shares captured by Costco, Sam’s and BJ’s. There is high competition in the whole club sector, because every firm wants to enter a more profitable market by offering low prices with top quality products to grab customer attention. To attain this they have low operating cost and low labor cost to operate their facilities. They dictate the suppliers for price, deliveries and payment terms. As it indicates the suppliers have to wait for 30 to 60 days for their payments after the delivery is done. Other than general customers these clubs are attracted small business owners, churches and non-profit organizations. To increase the profit margins they introduced annual membership fee collected from customers to purchase products in whole sale clubs. Among the three whole sale clubs Costco and Sam’s club are in various states and have also established themselves internationally. But BJ‘s has limited their store to eastern seaboard of the US only and its market share is not affected by other two clubs at their positions. BJ’s accepts coupons which add value to its customers. This is an advantage to BJ’s and a disadvantage to the other two firms. BJ’s does have same competition levels of the other two clubs to participate in rivalry. When compared to Costco and Sam’s club the major market share...
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...Jennifer Wepking-Doeden BADM 482 Case 1 – Costco 7/14/14 Costco Case Analysis INTRODUCTION Costco’s mission statement reads: “The company will continue to pursue its mission of bringing the highest quality goods and services to market at the lowest possible prices while providing excellent customer service and adhering to a strict code of ethics that includes taking care of our employees and members, respecting our suppliers, rewarding our shareholders, and seeking to be responsible corporate citizens and environmental stewards in our operations around the world.” (CITE) After evaluating Costco’s this mission, I believe their business model and strategy is extremely appealing to all parties involved. To a customer having the highest quality goods that come with low price tags, while providing excellent customer service is what they look for in this competitive market. If a customer purchased a poor quality good or experienced horrible customer service while at Costco, they most likely won’t return. Another appealing aspect Costco gives to customer is that the CEO will answer phone calls about the complaints. This will make the customer feel like something will be done about their complaint. Employees should admire the involvement the CEO Jim Sinegal presents and how the company’s business model appeals to them. The strict code of ethics they company projects is a major appealing aspect. Projecting correct ethics will help the company again worthy employees...
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...Competition Among the North American Warehouse Clubs: Costco Wholesale vs. Sam’s Club vs. BJ’s Wholesale 11/1/2013 Provide an overview of the company and/or industry and add any pertinent information relevant to the case (5 points) The Warehouse club retail industry was first started back in 1976. It currently consists of 3 main players: Costco Wholesale, Sam's Club and BJ's Wholesale club. These no frill, big box retailers offer discounted merchandise including such items as food, clothing, household goods, cleaning supplies, office supplies books, DVD's and some furniture. Items sold are usually in larger packages than offered in other retail stores. Warehouse clubs attract consumers such as families, businesses, churches and other organizations. It is hard for other retailers such as supermarkets, department store,. office supply stores, along with others to compete with wholesale club pricing. Clubs are able to keep pricing low due to bulk purchasing along with no frill overhead and low labor costs. . 1. Do all three warehouse club rivals – Costco, Sam’s, and BJ’s Wholesale – have highly similar strategies? What differences in their strategies are apparent? Does one rival have a better strategy that the others? Does one rival have a somewhat weaker strategy than the other two? (15 points) All three warehouse club rivals have some similar strategies. All practice the low cost provider strategy Their strategies are to offer...
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...SWOT ANALYSIS Group 4: Wholesale Clubs Due Date: April 13th Participants: Chelsea Jensen (Sam’s Club) Caitlin Kavanaugh (BJ’s) Julie Lehrman (Costco, formatted and submitted the document) A SWOT analysis is an analyzation on a situation which is broken up into 4 parts: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Strengths and weaknesses of a situation are internal factors that can include the development of a company or program, pricing, distribution, brand awareness, promotion market sharing, and management experience. Opportunities and threats of a situation are external factors that can include market trends, competitive activity, regulatory issues, economic pressure, and social issues. By evaluating a situation and categorizing those evaluations into the SWOT chart, you can more clearly see the past, present, and future of a situation/company. Identifying trends, analyzing the organizations competitors, accessing the organization itself, and researching the present and prospective customers are some points to look out for. As a result of a SWOT analysis, you can more clearly see how a company can: build on strengths, correct a weakness, exploit an opportunity, and avoid a threat. On the following page there is a chart that organizes a SWOT analysis on 3 different wholesale clubs: Costco, BJ’s, and Sam’s Club. Sources of information can be found on the page 3. S W ...
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...POLICINA, JULPHA CLARISSE P. SABLAN, JUSTINE ABIGAIL C. STRAMAN K33 Case 2 – Competition among the North American Warehouse Clubs 1. What is competition like in the North American wholesale club industry? Which of the five competitive forces is strongest and why? Competition in North American wholesale club industry is mainly about offering lower prices than other competitors. But with this low price that warehouse clubs are offering, they still have to offer something different in order for them to generate more income and get more clients than their competitors. The strongest among the five competitive forces is the rivalry among competing sellers. From all the membership warehouse and clubs, they are competing too much considering that they all offer at lower prices. They need to offer something different wherein the other competitors shouldn’t have to be able to achieve a competitive advantage. They are competing in same market and that is by selling those manufactured goods at almost same price levels. 2. Do all three warehouse club rivals – Costco, Sam’s, and BJ’s Wholesale – have highly similar strategies? What differences in their strategies are apparent? Does one rival have a better strategy than the others? Does one rival have a somewhat weaker strategy than the other two? Yes, these three have highly similar strategy being used. Costco, Sam’s and BJ’s offer low cost, and that’s mainly their similar strategy. Costco follows the strategy wherein they would offer low price...
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...American Warehouse Clubs As of 2010 the nearly $215 billion discount warehouse and wholesale club segment within the North American retailing industry consisted of three major competitors (Thompson, C55-73). These competitors included Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club which is also a Wal-Mart subsidiary, and BJ’s Wholesale Club. All three of these warehouse clubs also competed with a wide range of other types of retailers such as retailer discounters like Wal-Mart and Dollar General, general merchandise chains like Target and Kohl’s, specialty chains like Office Depot and Staples in office supplies and Best Buy in electronics and DVDs, supermarkets, gas stations, and even internet retailers (Thompson, C55-73). The competitive forces which influence these wholesale businesses are the suppliers, substitute products, buyer, new entrants, and rival firms. The strongest force out of these five competitive forces is rival firms. Costco, Sam’s Club, and BJ Wholesales are all competing for equivalent buyers within the North American wholesale club industry and market. BJ while on the smaller scale, does still have competition from both Costco and Sam’s Club, however they have not been as affected by their competition on the East Coast. Unlike BJ Wholesale Costco and Sam’s Club are both international. Even though Costco has a considerable market share they still have pretty stiff competition when it comes to Sam’s Club. The reason being is because both Costco and Sam’s Club are domestic...
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...1.What is competition like in the North American wholesale club industry? Which of the five competitive forces is strongest and why? Use the information in Figures 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8 (and the related chapter discussions on pp. 57-70) to do a complete Five-Forces analysis of competition in the North American wholesale club industry. In North American wholesale club industry, there are three principal competitors: Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club. Costco has approximately 56% share of warehouse club sales in North America; Sam’s Club has about 36% share and the rest 8% goes to BJ’s Club and other small warehouse clubs. A five forces analysis Rival Sellers: This is a strong competitive force in this case. All these three principal competitors: Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club, charge membership fees and offer low prices to attract members. The competition among them is vigorous: the products they offer are similar and they all have price advantage. Customers may easily switch membership from one to another. Potential New Entrants: This is a weak competitive force in this case. The three principal competitors: Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale Club have advantage because it is difficult for new companies to enter this industry. To be a new entrant, a company must have large amount of capital to acquire big enough building and land to satisfy large scale buying and selling; also it has to have an established distribution...
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...hpu | Case Study: Costco Wholesale vs. Sam's Club vs. BJ's Wholesale | Management 4001 | | Danielle Lewis | 2/3/2012 | | Costco Wholesale vs. Sam's Club vs. BJ's Wholesale The main strategic issue that is faced by Costco (and by Sam's Club to a lesser extent) is the fact that it has trouble competing with BJ's Wholesale on some key factors of customer service. Costco is a warehouse-style retailer, just like the other two companies. Typically, these companies offer lower prices, but consumers who shop there also need to buy their items in bulk (Thompson, 2011). They get fewer perks, such as fixtures and décor, but that saves them money in the long run. It is a very "no frills" shopping experience which suits many people who prefer to buy their items in bulk and not have to shop as often as they otherwise would (Barrett, 2003; Thompson, 2011). Mostly affluent and middle-class people shop at these kinds of stores, as well as many small business owners. People who have less money typically stay away from Costco and other, similar stores because there is a membership fee and buying in bulk can result in larger outlays of money at one time - something many people with lower incomes simply do not have. While Costco is doing well, its strategy of providing that no frills experience for buying bulk goods has been recently called into question. It has been called into question because Sam's Club and BJ's Wholesale are doing more now in order to provide customers...
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...Costco Inc. 2012: A Wholesale Membership Industry Analysis Using the Porter’s Five Forces Model Costco’s Company Background Costco is the third largest retailer in the U.S. as well as the seventh largest retailer in the world. It is leading the discount warehouse and wholesale club segment of the North American retailing industry. As of 2012, Costco had a total of 598 warehouses internationally. Costco’s fiscal 2011 total revenue was $88.9 billion and net income was $1.46 billion. Additionally Costco had $1.9 billion of membership fees revenue acquired from 25 million households and 6.4 million businesses making it the leader in the wholesale, membership industry. The annual sales for one of Costco’s competitors, Sam’s Club, averaged $146 million with a $78 million average per store. Costco’s business model aims to generate high sales volumes and rapid inventory turnover by offering fee-paying members attractively low prices on a limited selection of nationally branded and selected private-label products in a wide range of merchandise category. Rapid inventory turnover, low operating costs through purchasing high volumes, efficient distribution, and reduced merchandise handling costs are the major factors that make Costco profitable with relatively lower gross margins than other wholesale competitors. Also, the membership fee required from customers is a major revenue source thataccounts for approximately 70 percent of its total revenue annually. Additionally, Costco...
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...http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=COST&ql=0 http://www.costco.com.au/About/History.shtml http://www.costco.com.au/About/AboutCostco.shtml 1. History In 1976 Price Club was founded in San Diego, California. A year before their business reached over $1 billion dollars in sales, Costco opened its first warehouse in Seattle, Washington. In 1986 Price Club had 22 locations and 3.2 million members while Costco had 17 locations and 1.3 million members. In 1993 these two companies formed under a merger, but it wasn’t until 1997 that they changed their name from PriceCostco to Costco Companies Inc. Costco’s mission is to offer quality, brand name products at a substantially lower rate than their competitors. Although Costco targets small-to-medium-sized businesses in large cities throughout the world to help reduce costs in purchasing for resale and for everyday business use, they also sell to customers for their personal needs. Businesses and large families are Costco’s greatest customers. "Costco is able to offer lower prices and better values by eliminating virtually all the frills and costs historically associated with conventional wholesalers and retailers, including salespeople, fancy buildings, delivery, billing and accounts receivable. We run a tight operation with extremely low overhead which enables us to pass on dramatic savings to our members." Soon after their merger, Costco introduced their Kirkland Signature brand name- products that boast to be of equal...
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...09/26/2013 Question 1: Competition in the North American wholesale club industry is high, with Costco being its leader at 56% of the market share. Main ways to compete are lower prices, more efficient operations, and reduced labor and overhead costs as well. Some of the clubs do the bare minimum in advertising while others, like BJ’s, spend more money on it (special Christmas radio advertisement and such). Out of the five competitive forces, the strongest is the rivalry between the competitors, because all of the players in this market attempt to offer high-quality products at lower prices. According to Figure 3.3, one of the reasons for rivalry amongst competitors to be strong is a relatively low cost to buyers to switch brands, and also if buyer demand is growing slowly, both of which are true in this case. All competitors in this industry are focusing on low margins on the products and high volumes of sales. Suppliers do have some power and influence on the wholesale club members, especially in the case with Costco, which buys some of its goods on the gray market and is known to sell some big-ticket items, but with globalization happening and more and more of suppliers being available around the world, they do not present a reason for concern as high as the rivalry between market players. Customers are always looking for lower prices and higher quality of merchandise, which Costco has been excellent at providing. BJ’s strategy is to give a better customer service and to become...
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...Competition among the North American Warehouse Clubs: Costco Wholesale versus Sam's Club versus BJ's Wholesale The company competitive strategy are the specific moves that help the company please the customers, make offensive and defensive moves to beat the competition, and how it responds to changing market conditions. The five generic competitive strategies describe the five methods firms use to generate their strategic options. Firms use a low-cost provider strategy, a focused or market niche low cost strategy, a focused or market niche differentiation strategy, a best-cost provider strategy, or a strategic combination of all five. The North American warehouse clubs case show how Costco Wholesale, Sam’s Club, and BJ’s Wholesale are using strategy to try and win customers. The membership warehouse club began in 1976 and after a rocky start, has expanded to a global industry. Costco and Sam’s Club began in 1983 and BJ’s followed in 1984. These three companies have been in a competitive battle ever since. Costco Wholesale’s strategy is based on being the low-cost leader. Successful low-cost leaders are exceptional at finding ways to drive costs out of their business and still provide a product or service that buyers find acceptable (Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble, 2012). Costco uses a focused or market niche low-cost strategy to keep their prices down and earn repeat customers. Costco would only stock items that could be priced at a bargain...
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