Blog # 5

One of my favorite grocery stores where I love to go to shop for my groceries is Food Lion. Food Lion is located in a strip shopping center, right on the I-501 boulevard between Roxboro and Durham. One of the advantages that Food Lion has over grocery retailers in Roxboro is that Food Lion has suitable parking; the parking lot is big enough for the customers of Food Lion to manuever in, along with other customers from other grocery stores. Another advantage that Food Lion has over the other grocery retailers is that a lot of customers who pass through Roxboro and Durham on the I-501 Boulevard can go to Food Lion for convenience shopping; they can shop there to get whatever they want or need and then leave. A third advantage is that Food Lion has very little pedestrian traffic-none that is serious.

One of the disadvantages that Food Lion has being located where it is is the traffic flow. The traffic flow on the I-501 boulevard is not as great as the traffic flow on the upper boulevard, where some of the other grocery retailers are located, such as Lowes Foods and Wal Mart Supercenter, which is the reason, at times, why they get better business than Food Lion. Another disadvantage that Food Lion has being located where it is is the accessibility of traffic in the area where it is located. It is much harder at times for people to get into the Food Lion parking lot because of the heavy congestion of traffic. I like the location that Food Lion is located in because it is closer to where I live, plus, I can go there to get whatever I want or need, even do some comparison shopping, and then go about my business.

Financial Strategy for Circuit City and Sharper Image

In the last several months, like seven or eight, there have been a few retailers that declared bankruptsy and closing. Two of these retailers were Circuit City and Sharper Image. Although Circuit City made it clear that, in November last year, that it was filing for bankruptsy and closing 155 stores, I think the main reason why Circuit City had failed is because it is in competition with two of the biggest names in the consumer electronics business, Best Buy and WalMart. Other reasons why I think that Circuit City's business had failed is because the sales associates did not have enough customer experience about the retailers merchandise. Plus, Circuit City made many bad management decisions over the years and had fired many experienced sales people.

Sharper Image is another retailer that had failed in the retail business. The main reason why the Sharper Image retailer failed was because of increased compettion from other top retailers. Another reason why this retailer failed was because of three straight years of losses, plus the company was $199 million dollars in debt, and the sales trade had declined since 2004. Third, the retailer received litigation about its Ionic Breeze air purifier. Lastly, Sharper Image had suffered from very low consumer and market confidence.