When I viewed the Kudler Fine Food’s website, I noticed that they had several problems within their organization and business strategy. The first problem that I saw was that most of their products are perishable goods. For a small company, this could be a very big problem. When most of the products have life expectancy of three days, many of the foods will go to waste. This is one of the flaws of targeting a group of gourmet shoppers that demand the freshest product. Getting rid of past due product adds additional cost to companies and could be a very big disadvantage to smaller companies like Kudler Fine Foods.
Another problem that I see is that Kudler Fine Foods will be competing against other gourmet shops. Two of the bigger gourmet shops, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, have the advantage in brand recognition and lower prices. People trust these brands and know that they can get the freshest and rarest product without sacrificing more money. Since these shops have already been established, it would be hard for Kudler Fine Foods to win over the competition. If a Trader Joe’s were to open up in the same area of a Kudler Fine Foods, then that would mean trouble for the company to survive. Kudler Fine Foods would be no match compared to these bigger stores.
The last problem that I identified with their business strategy is that they will be closing down their Del Mar location. The company realized that the town is too small to support their company. The company should have weighed their strengths and weaknesses before opening a new store. Since the gourmet food market is already a small niche, getting through a small town would almost guarantee failure. The best way to become successful in a small town would be to target the entire town which would be a general store. Targeting a small niche would work for big cities because the niche is a small percentage of the general public.