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Michael Kalmanovitch is fiercely passionate about environmental and social sustainability and 20 years ago he started a business called “Earth’s General Store” (EGS), that provides organic groceries and fair-trade products. “He felt that Earth’s General Store not only gave him a constructive way to promote his concerns about the environmental issues but also was an important public activism platform that inspired Edmontonians to get involved I their local community” (Paulitsch et al., 2017). The success of his first store allowed him to open up a second location in Edmonton’s downtown corridor. This location is underperforming and here we review the business with a SWOT analysis, and then provide recommendations …show more content…
This experience has allowed him to be a driving force for many community events while inspiring community involvement.
• EGS has created a strong loyal customer base. These customers believe Kalmanovitch and his business enough to help raise investment funds for expanding the business with new products and a second location.
• Customer care and engagement where employees initiate genuine conversations to help educate and serve their shopping needs.
Weaknesses:
• Financial challenges due to the underperforming downtown location. The strong performing and stable first store subsidizes the second store.
• No HR Performance Management system in place to build employee capabilities. Employees are a competitive strategy if trained and empowered to make decisions that benefit both the customer and the business.
• Buying power is weak compared to some large-scale competitors.
Opportunities:
• An online presence to promote the business and environmental initiatives, which can help promote the business by building brand awareness.
• Delivery service for both business and residential …show more content…
These stores fall into the premium category where they serve a smaller niche market were consumers are only looking for organic and higher quality items.
• Farmers Market has both the quality and local appeal with items often picked fresh the day before the market. Consumers highly value the fresh quality products and are willing to pay premium for them.
See Figure 1 with Pricing Strategy Matrix for the Organic Food Market in Edmonton.
Figure 1.
• A survival technique is required here adopting all four pricing strategies. The survival technique provides flexible pricing on products that may be used to draw customers into the store. Short-term pricing on some products are known as loss leaders to entice customer into the store and then also purchase items that are not on sale to help drive volume on more profitable items. See Figure 2 for EGS pricing on various products.
Figure