Analysis of Franchising Strategy

Analysis of Franchising Strategy FreshDirect is the leading online grocer, who serves more than 300 zip codes in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Nassua County, Riverdale, Westchester, Staten Island, New Jersey, and some areas of Connecticut, and they are providing a new way to shop for food. They are based in a 300,000-square-foot production building in Long Island City and they are the largest employers in the city. Joseph Fedele and Jason Ackerman cofounded FreshDirect in July 2001. Before FreshDirect was established, most other online grocery businesses had failed. Even with the demise of online grocery businesses for the previous decade, cofounders strongly believed that they would succeed in their business as their efficient operating strategy was built to provide high quality at lower prices. At first, however, FreshDirect was blamed for the limited service area until it expanded its area slowly. The company started to become popular by providing high quality products, such as locally grown fresh products and or ganic food at lower prices to local residents and offices. Then a few years later, people could see many refrigerated trucks of FreshDirect all over the Manhattan streets. FreshDirect has proven their efficient operating strategies, and it led to success in the online grocery industry. Since FreshDirect made profits, there has been a movement toward this online grocery industry, and they are facing a few challenges. Today, FreshDirect is facing fierce competition from traditional retail grocery, local restaurants, and other online grocers with delivery services. People have consistently questioned how fresh the products delivered by FreshDirect are because they have a limitation for seeing and feeling the products as an online grocer. According to one article, FreshDirect spent $600,000 for parking tickets as part of their operating expenses (Moskin, 2005). In addition to that, in 2007, the New York City government required a congestion charge for FreshDirect because FreshDirect has contributed to traffic jam, and the increasing gas prices are adding to their delivery expenses. One major challenge for FreshDirect is environmental issues. People complain about their idling delivery trucks which are contributing to additional exhaust fumes and taking parking spaces. Another environmental issue is using too many cardboard boxes. Their choice of which neighborhoods to deliver to is related to accused discrimination, and they have faced union related problems for unfair wages. Analysis SWOT Analysis One analytical framework that can be used for the internal and external environment of FreshDirect is SWOT analysis. The analysis of the FreshDirect issues will be broken down into â€Å"strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats† (Dess, Lumpkin, Eisner & McNamara, 2012). Strengths Their wide choices of products with high-quality information on the foods that were sold Low operating expenses due to not renting expensive retail space. FreshDirect†™s efficient supply chain with no middleman. Low-cost marketing approach Cost-effective operating strategy of FreshDirect for their production facility. Extremely high standards for safety, health, and cleanliness in all areas. Strong partnerships with well-known chefs and restaurants in Manhattan Overall, FreshDirect has lots of strengths that are superior to competitors. They have provided various products to select with high quality at low cost on their well-designed website with high-quality information on the foods which are sold. With no retail location, they have lower operating expenses, resulting in more net revenues relative to traditional retail grocery businesses. Rather than having the middleman, they order all fresh products from individual suppliers and deliver directly to their customers. The less intermediaries between the distribution channel, the less the product costs. This allows FreshDirect to provide their high-quality goods at lower costs. They ha ve adopted a low-cost marketing approach by using a recommendation-based campaign from actual customers, which increases the credibility among new and existing customers. Their production facility is located close to their Manhattan customer base with 12 separate temperature zones and an SAP manufacturing software system, which have kept the best condition of their products at the optimal temperature. High standard for cleanliness leads to high quality products. Strong partnershisp have enhanced the quality and taste of the four-minute meal.

Soto Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Soto - Essay Example Soto exhibits several strong purposes in writing this essay. The first thing that the reader will notice is that this author writes to entertain. The reader can visualize the boy in the story trying to find something to do other than watch ‘the perfect family’ on television all summer. His interactions with others throughout the story, while carrying an underlying tone we will analyze in a moment, are written in a narrative format that is easy to follow along. Whoever reads the story can feel a part of the boy’s life and truly visualize what he spends his summer days doing. When he encounters Mrs. Moore in his effort to do some work at her house, she exclaims â€Å"It’s summer, and there ain’t no leaves† (Soto 24). This makes us all remember the days of our youth and our good-natured encounters with the neighbors. A subsequent, more serious purpose to this essay lies in the life of the boy and his siblings. Soto appears to be asking the reader to empathize with the characters in the story. Adults all around them seem to be communicating that, because of their Hispanic heritage, they can only go so far up the ladder of success in society. So, they spend their days watching the perfect ‘white’ family on television and wishing, almost, that they had been born into a different family, or at least at a different time. This is a social message. Soto is effectively asking his audience to imagine being a child who feels others around him are superior to him simply because of their race. He also is asking the reader to visualize being a child and discovering that nearly every adult in your life supports the notion that you are stuck where you are and cannot advance. It is certainly not a ‘pretty picture’, but it is certainly a message that certainly gives the reader pause to reflect and consider. Soto was effective in pointing the readers, in an entertaining fashion, towards a serious social problem faci ng the country. He takes issue with boys and girls who are told their dreams cannot come true even before they reach the middle of adolescence. The boy’s two siblings seem to already have bought into this notion. His brother, in essence, spends his days playing around in the ditch and really desires to do nothing else. Sensing that there is more to life, the boy begins to strike out on his own and try to make something of himself. Sure, this is just a story, but the message and purpose is clear. Soto really desires to use this essay to point towards this perceived social injustice and he challenges society to take action. To this end, the author is effective. One of Soto’s ideas during this essay is that adults perpetuate this feeling in minority children that they are destined to a life that is inferior to others. He demonstrates this with the boy’s mother. Early in the story, the narrator’s mother tells him â€Å"Boy, are you a crazy Mexican. Where did you get the idea that people eat turtles?† (Soto 23). The implication of the mother throughout is clear. While she certainly seems to love her children, she believes that, since they are Mexican, they cannot be like the ‘white children’ they see on television. Sure, you want your children to be proud of their race. Upon analyzing this essay and its purpose, however, it is

Modern and Contemporary Poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Modern and Contemporary Poetry - Essay Example The post World War 1 Western society according to Elliot is not an integrated unit of individuals. In fact, it is just â€Å"a heap of broken images† (22), which suggests that the individuals are detached from one another and fail to form a functional society. It is like â€Å"the dead tree† (23) that cannot provide shelter to anyone. It reflects an awry state of society whose foundations have crumbled and its individuals are left alone. This line evokes an innate desire of individuals to break away from the oppressive traditions of society and seek refuge in the mountains, where one can exercise the freedom of self. The effects of the First World War on society and individuals were irreparable and it has been portrayed by the gloomy imagery in this poem. â€Å"Unreal City, / Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,† (60-61) A quite depressing state of society that survives under â€Å"the brown fog† has been portrayed in these lines. It is quite possible that Elliot is metaphorically representing the society as the brown fog, which gives a sense of oppression and stagnation because this blanket of â€Å"brown fog† doesn’t let in light or fresh air. It is suffocating for the individuals to live in such society that doesn’t give them the freedom to grow. In the second poem, â€Å"rats’ alley† (115) could be a reference to modern society that has turned into a narrow place with no light or fresh air. It gives a sense of a place where the characters, values and lives of human beings are decaying. One also gets an impression that the society Elliot is talking about is so cold that it dampens the spirit and will of the individuals to move on in their lives. â€Å"But at my back in a cold blast I hear/ The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.† (185-186) However, the individuals are still hoping and waiting for a response from the society they are living in