Office Depot

After emerging from bankruptcy in 2005, Eddie Bauer had to take several strategic steps to establish an effective direction of the company and operate more successfully. Management’s plan of reorganization identified six key strategic initiatives that can be classified into two main groups. The first component of their strategy is to improve profitability by both increasing demand through effective marketing campaigns (brand revitalization, resizing of stores, and improving customer experience) and cutting costs (store rationalization, increasing direct sales, and optimizing productivity). The second component of their strategy is

BBBY faces both external / internal potential problems while it tactics to implement its expansion plan.

Wal-Mart is an American multinational retail corporation and one of the leading discount department retail stores (Wikipedia). It is the highest- grossing company in the United States (Fortune 2008a), and is by far one of the most successful companies worldwide. Wal-Mart offers a place to buy the majority of our goods under one roof like electronics, furniture, clothing, pharmacy, sports, food, books etc. Wal-Mart sells good at lower price than the others and this is even shown by its slogan “save money, live better”.  It drives out smaller and sometimes even the expensive stores out of business due to its lower prices. Wal-Mart provides jobs for thousands of

In 1979, they opened three Home Depot outlets in the Atlanta area, adding fourth outlet in 1980. The next year Home Depot when public, opened four stores in South Florida, and posted sales of $50 million. After opening two more stores and making sales of $100 million in 1982, the company was named Retailer of the Year in the home building supply industry. The chain entered Louisiana and Arizona next.

The industry we have chosen is the department store-retail industry. Within this industry, we have chosen the department stores of JCPenney and Macy’s. We find this industry, as well as these two companies, interesting from a strategic perspective. JCPenney has recently undergone a massive strategic restructuring in regards to its pricing, brand offerings, and store layout, pushing it away from the typical department store strategy of discounts and coupons. Its new strategy has become much closer to Wal-Mart’s strategy of every day low prices. Macy’s, on the other hand, has restructured with a push from the economic

The Organizing function of management is one of the four main functions of management. Organizing within a company is very important and affects several aspects of a company’s organizational resources. In this paper, I will attempt to explain how the organizing function of management relates to the following organizational resources at The Home Depot: Technology and Knowledge. I will also discuss whether or not The Home Depot has optimized these organizational resources for effectiveness as well as efficiency.

Lowe’s is the world’s second largest home improvement retailer and operated 952 stores in forty five states at their fiscal year ending January 30, 2004. The company is currently in the midst of the most aggressive expansion in its history with 130 new stores opened in 2003 and another 140 slated for this year. Lowe’s saw 2003 sales reach approximately $30.8 billion, due largely to their focus on the retail customers and home-improvement projects.

Companies are growing by bringing in new stores to new locations rather than come up with innovation in the terms of bringing the products to the consumer. As written in business insights, the industry is recession proof but personally we believe that the companies’ sales are

In 2009 and forward, Loblaw Companies were up against aggressive competitive markets while still dealing with the backlash from the 2008 world economic crisis. Same store sales were on the decline and Loblaw’s was in desperate need to change their store strategies. By 2011, Loblaw’s had come up with the idea to diversify and expand their operations with new upgrades to in store departments as well as expanding upon their leading brands, President’s Choice and No Name. This case study underlines the premise of national and global strategies, which is a key subject matter and general broad topic when studying International Business. The main concerns of this case study would be to identify if Loblaw’s new strategies gave them a leading edge in the ever-expanding market, as well as seeing if these new strategies will hold up to market standards in the near future.

Founded in 1978 by Arthur Banks and Bernie Marcus, who were both fired from a local hardware store after a disagreement with their supervisor (http://founderbios.com/bernie-marcus.php), Home Depot opened its first store in Atlanta, Georgia on June 22, 1979 (www.corporate.homedepot.com). The founders had a vision to create a big-box retail chain that empowered customers to take on their own home improvement and repair projects. As the fourth largest retailer in the U.S. and the world’s largest home improvement retailer

As specified in the weaknesses, Macy’s Department Stores Inc. has very little geographic presence in the countries where the growth ratio is much higher. Among the possible list of opportunities available to the company, the company can expand its business operations and portfolio in the emerging markets of Asia like China, India etc. these markets represents the great potential of success and profitability to the large numbers of companies. Business expansion can also be done by having strategic alliance in the form of mergers with

Overstock.com, also known as O.co, with headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah was founded in 1999 by Patrick S. Byrne, its CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Byrne "recognized the potential in liquidating excess inventory through the Internet. Up until then, consumers had relied upon outlet centers with crowds and limited product selections for finding bargains, and small retailers found little access into the world of closeout merchandise" (O.co, 2010). Meantime, the art of online shopping seemed to be skyrocketing. In 1999 Overstock.com reported a "$1.8 million in annual revenue to over $1 billion in revenue in 2010. Overstock.com is a major online retailer offering a wide variety of high-quality, brand name

Home Depot 's target market is individual homeowners/small contractors. Even though the traditional ideology is that cost leadership and product differentiation business strategies are mutually exclusive, Home Depot was successful at using a combination strategy. First, Home Depot optimized the cost leadership strategy by offering low and competitive prices to its customers by emphasizing higher sales volumes with lower margins, while instituting a high inventory turnover. Home Depot successfully offered a warehouse product strategy to the individual consumer for the first time. Previously, this type of price discounting was only available to professional contractors who earned product price

Office Depot. Office Depot is known as the second best in the office supplies industry right behind Staples and they also began in 1986 (Hurtibise, 2015). Their first store was in Lauderdale, Florida and there after continued to expand through the southern state. Also, just like Staples they started out by selling the bare office essentials and later as well move further in expanding their product line to draw the attention to gain new customers. In 1996, Staples attempted to purchase Office Depot, but the opportunity was turned down by the FTC and in 2015 both companies attempted to merge; but sadly that was also denied by the FTC stating that both combined as one would be too influential (Hurtibise, 2015). However, in 2013 an approved merger

In 1996, there were three largest and absolutely dominant office superstores (OSS) chains in United States office supply market, Staples, Office Depot and OfficeMax. Office superstores can get access to much more convenient and cheaper supply of goods than small retailers through signing a mass of contracts with suppliers. They are mostly located in downtown business districts, and own considerable floor areas, a wide variety of product types and sizable supply size. Therefore, they can provide consumers with great user experience and convenience by