Competitive Market
The author of this report is asked to look at a competitive market and its main business that leads or otherwise exemplifies the sector. The sector that will be looked at is retail. The far and away leader of this retail market is Wal-Mart but they have three competitors in the form of Target, Kroger and K-Mart/Sears, that each compete against Wal-Mart in their own way. Despite the fact that they are in the same general line of business, they each have their own niche that they target.
Niche of Each Business
Wal-Mart's clear objective is to sell in bulk at low prices. They deal heavily in the grocery and hardline sectors and are very aggressive discounters in both markets. In half a century, they have risen a nascent retail to a worldwide juggernaut that employs more than a million people in the United States alone and nearly two million worldwide (Wal-Mart, 2013). Target is perhaps the most similar to Wal-Mart in that many of their stores are "super" stores that sell both groceries and hardline goods. However, Target and Wal-Mart are clearly different in their overall image. Target sells a lot of the same discount goods as Wal-Mart but they also sell some slightly more upscale goods that Wal-Mart does not offer and their stores are often lauded as being more clean and more free of riffraff than Wal-Mart (Target, 2013).
Kroger has traditionally been a grocer only but they have most certainly made a foray into hardline goods in recent years, especially in their larger stores. Their prices tend to be higher than Wal-Mart and Target but Kroger does good business despite that. There are three main differences between Kroger and the first two retailers mentioned. First, Kroger is a grocer first and a hardline goods seller second. Wal-Mart and Target are the other way around although this is shifting with all three of the companies. Second, Kroger operates under several different names depending on region including the names City Market, Dillon's and King Soopers....
Lastly, Kroger operates its own chain of gas stations that are linked to the discount card program that Kroger runs through its stores (Kroger, 2013).
The last competitor is the K-Mart/Sears conglomerate. Both K-Mart and Sears have been near-death at one time or another but when K-Mart faltered about ten years ago, K-Mart and Sears actually merged together. Traditionally, and to this day for the most part, Sears is more of a department store like Dillard's and JC Penney while K-Mart is more like Wal-Mart and Target, although their grocery offerings are scant compared to Target and Wal-Mart's grocery-laden store locations. Even so, some Target and Wal-Mart locations remain mostly hardlines, like K-Mart, with staple grocery items like snack, drink and milk products (K-Mart, 2013)(Sears, 2013).
Overall, all four of the businesses do decent to great business, although the K-Mart/Sears conglomerate is struggling along with a few other store chains like JC Penney. However, all four businesses have concerns on one level or another. Wal-Mart is generally the juggernaut although they are also the industry pariah even though they do much the same thing in terms of hiring patterns and what-not as other firms. Wal-Mart is condemned for hiring part time more than they should to avoid full-time benefits but all retail outlets do that one level or another due to the ease of replacing departing workers given that the job does not require a lot of skill.
Wal-Mart is all about marketing the most goods they can in bulk amounts and at good prices. Specialty items of any sort will possibly not be found at Wal-Mart but any sort of common item like a gallon of milk, a hammer or a storage tote can definitely be found at Wal-Mart. Other stores cannot brag as much about that. Target has slightly inferior, but still pretty good, selection compared to Wal-Mart but this is emblematic of a firm that markets to a slightly higher economic quintile than Wal-Mart and their product mix makes that quite clear.…
