How to compete with Wal-Mart
Interesting article in USA Today about successfully competing with the nations’s largest grocery store chain.
Wal-Mart already has grown to be the nation’s largest food retailer, with about 14% of all grocery sales. But smaller, more agile, risk-taking companies, such as Stew Leonard’s (Connecticut and New York), Whole Foods (32 states), Trader Joe’s (19 states), Lunds and Byerly’s (Minnesota), Wild Oats (24 states), Bristol Farms (Southern California) and Central Market (Texas), also are growing, in some cases explosively.
These companies say they’re successful because they have figured out how to tempt customers away from the convenience of 7-Eleven and the low prices of Wal-Mart by teaching employees to build relationships with shoppers through personal service.
Now there is a novel idea. Personal service!
