How To Compete Against Wal-Mart
.... Retailers in those towns, in order to survive, have had to develop strategies to negate Wal-Mart's price advantage, and this project provides students with an opportunity to think about factors other than price that might be important to consumers when they decide to purchase a product. Development a Competitive Strategy For a business firm, an important element to be monitored in the external environment is competition. After analyzing current and potential competitors, firms must decide whether or not to compete, determine the markets in which they will compete, and design a competitive strategy. Recently, sociologists have begun to examine the impact that the Wal-Mart chain has had on the communities within which they operate. These researchers have found that many of the smaller retailers which carried merchandise in direct competition with Wal-Mart have closed their doors because they felt that there was no way that they could compete profitably against this discounting giant; indeed, some of the studies have shown that even the hint of a new Wal-Mart store has been enough to send established retailers packing. You are a small retailer in a business of your choice in a small community. The local Chamber of Commerce has just announced that a new Wal-Mart store will begin construction within the next three months. Assume that whatever you have chosen as your retail business will place you in direct competition with Wal-Mart. Anybody can up and quit, but quitters never win, so quitting is not an option for you; therefore, the answer to the first question, "Should we compete?" will...