key factors that led to Walmart’s and Whole Food’s success

Key Factors that Led to Walmart’s and Whole Food’s Success
Name
Institution
Key Factors that Led to Walmart’s and Whole Food’s Success
Walmart
The first thing that was critical to the success of Walmart was its founder’s entrepreneurial skills. Right from his first store, Walton always knew that finding a way of selling items at discounted prices would help him attract many new clients. As such, he looked for suppliers who could deliver products to him at reduced prices so that he could be able to retail them at a little less than his competitors did. Having noticed that clients were complaining about hypermarkets not offering fully-stocked grocery provisions, he came up with the supercenter idea. Walmart’s pioneer supercenter combined a grocery store and discount outlet; two features that were greatly desired by the American population. The excellent reception that his ideas got from the client was the other critical factor to the organization’s success.
Further, he had a unique way of managing his stores that ensured that every activity ran just as well as he wanted them to. Precisely, he believed in randomly showing up at Walmart stores to talk to his business associates and confirm that every system was working fine (Levy & Weitz, 2007). Because of this tendency, most store managers were always on their toes to ensure that everything was always perfect in case Walton walked in on them. Due to the direct communication, he maintained with most store managers, his managerial style, his entrepreneurial eye, and the excellent response that his ideas got from the customers, Walmart has managed to grow into the globe’s biggest corporation.

Whole Food
Just like Walmart, Whole Food’s success also relied heavily on the owner’s entrepreneurial skills and passion for natural food. Even though John Mackey’s parents disapproved of his idea of being a grocer, he insisted on doing it because he loved food and loved retail (Levy & Weitz, 2007). In his adamancy, he discovered a good retail strategy that he hoped would work. Precisely, Whole Foods decided to place their focus on the middle class Americans who were health and environmentally conscious by employing a contemporary supermarket format instead of the tiny specialty health store format. After years of providing whole quality foods, keeping good relations with its suppliers, and offering amazing customer service to its clients through well trained and remunerated employees, the clients, developed some loyalty to the brand and Mackey’s strategy worked. Moreover, Whole Foods has managed to keep its supply chain efficient by linking local farmers to “a national store network” (Levy & Weitz, 2007). Due to all these factors, the organization has managed to grow to its present stature.
References
Levy, M., & Weitz, B. A. (2007). Retailing management. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.