Blog 5: Food Lion's Location

Food Lion is a very popular grocery store located all over the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It prides its self on having very low prices for quality goods. They have an MVP customer car program so that customers save more. I visited two Food Lion's in Greensboro recently, one on Coliseum boulevard, and one on Market Street.

Both locations were in shopping centers with lower priced stores. The store on Market street shared a shopping center with a Marshall's, Dollar General, and also an ABC store. The store on Coliseum was located right across from a Family Dollar, a CVS, and an urban clothing store. The parking lots for both stores and what seemed like an infinite amount of parking which mad lots seem very empty. Because of all the parking though pedestrians were able to get spots closer to the store and it seemed easier to get in and out, even though only one entrance was accessible when I visited. The lots did not have very good upkeep, and there were stains and trash all over the parking lot along with the pavement being cracked.

I feel like these two locations work out well for Food Lion. Food Lion usually attracts customer that make less money, and even though the one on Market is across from a Harris Teeter, it definitely attracts a different target market. Because the shopping centers these stores are in include many off price retailers locations most likely have lower rent and upkeep which keeps prices down. These locations work because they are convenient for Food Lion's target market. The people who shop at the stores near Food Lion most likely shop in Food Lion too because they are all lower price retailers.

Blog 4: Steve & Barry's failure

Everyday when we turn around more and more stores are closing and filing for bankruptcy. Whats to blame? Is it the economy? The stores? Well I think its a little bit of everything. Steve and Barry's opened up about 20 years ago to appeal to the college crowd. They sold college wear for very cheap, usually under $10 a t-shirt. As they began to become more popular, they began to take on a new thing, regular clothing. They licensed brands by Sarah Jessica Parker and Amanda Bynes in pursuit of become more upscale an fashionable. The clothes in the store were never priced over $20, so they still had very cheap clothes.

It seems to me, that they bit off more than they could chew when they began selling regular clothing. It wasn't what people wanted from this store. The clothes that they sold were not all that great, and they were trying so hard to be an upscale store that they failed. They just were not strong enough to stick around in an economy thins bad. Maybe if they would have had some better advertising and display techniques they could've lasted. They should have just stuck to their original plans instead of trying to do everything extra big, and maybe they would still be around.

Sources:
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/business/34830124.html
http://arborweb.com/articles/steve___barry_s_closing.html
http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2008/11/18/steve-and-barrys-set-to-throw-in-the-towel/