Running head: INTEGRATIVE LEANING PROJECT
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BUS 650- Integrative Learning Project 1
Henry Adu Coleman
Liberty University
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Wegmans is considered as regional supermarket chain with 101 stores all over the
United States and listed as one of the largest private companies in the United States. Wegmans
is a family-owned company, which was founded in 1961 in New York, where it has its
headquarters currently, specifically Rochester, and has about 48,000 employees. Currently,
Wegmans operates in seven out of fifty states in the United States. In 2019, Harris Poll
Reputation Quotient study ranked Wegmans as first most -a visible company out of 100
companies (Wegmans, 2019).
Again, in the same year, Wegmans was ranked the third company among the list of hundred best
companies to work for by a survey conducted by Fortune magazine, and this was due to its
attractive and competitive salaries, unique perks, and scholarship to employees (Wegmans,
2019).
Wegmans is a company that is missioned to care about the well-being and success of
every person through high standards and excellent service to make a difference in every
community it operates. Wegmans has a set of values that aimed to respect, listen, empower, and
service its staff to make the right decisions that improve their work to benefit customers and the
company. Wegmans is target at customers who are working-class professionals who want to buy
everyday items groceries, and other items are their convenient time (Bolluyt, 2018). Wegman
stores offer about 50,000 to 70,000 products as compared to an average of just over 40,000 in
most supermarkets (Wegmans, 2019). Wegman offers more than 4,000 organic products and
other food items throughout its stores across the country. Wegmans is also noted for the service
of "Look and feel like a European open-air market (Wegmans, 2019). The store displays fresh
produce, artisan bread, meat, fresh-caught seafood, deli products, international foods, household
items, and many others.
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Again, Wegman's stores have a market café, restaurants, buzz coffee shops, old-
fashioned sub shop, bakery, pizza shop, sushi made fresh daily food, and others. The store again
has a pharmacy area that offers home delivery, pet medication, and automated refills. In addition
to the products offered, Wegman's store has floral shops, health and beauty care products,
housewares, and seasonal merchandise. Wegmans stores run 75,000 to 140,000 square feet in
size, with spacious aisles, this makes their stores larger than most supermarkets (Wegmans,
2019). Most companies wish to shop at Wegman because of its consistently low prices, all items,
and offer customers a choice of Family Pack size on products throughout stores to save time and
money as compared to the prices of its rival stores. Wegmans has a good relationship with its
suppliers and sets the goals of a vendor guide to provide a detailed source of Wegman's supply
chain network and policies. Suppliers conduct good behavior throughout the supply chain, which
allows for the product to be on store shelves resulting in incredible service to customers every
day (Johnson, 2019).
Wegmans provides incredible service for all our customers to create the ability to enjoy
their shopping experience. These specialized services at Wegmans include the introduction of
new "Go Shopping Cart" to offer families with young children, and with mobility restrictions a
safer, more natural way to grocery shop together. Again, Wegman has created a motorized
shopping cart for customers with mobility impairments and "Caroline's Carts" for caregivers
shopping with special needs (Wegmans, 2015). Also, the company has created a free use of the
Aira smartphone app, which acts as assistive technology that link the visually impaired with a
network of certified agents via an augmented reality dashboard, and it allows agents to see a
visually impaired person in real-time. The store also has hearing loop technology at the service
desk, pharmacy and designated front end registers to help customers with hearing impairments
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communicated with the staff when shopping. Most customers rate Wegmans store above the
other competitors such as Wholefood because of their large stores, chain's selection of fresh
produce, more significant varieties of organic produces and other products, and affordable prices
and credits (Bolluyt, 2018).
Currently, Wegmans has introduced fast, instant shopping and delivery system through
the instant cart app and also created a staging area in the stores where hired stoppers work to stag
the items ordered by customers for pickup by drivers to the customer's location (Wegmans,
2019). Wegmans operate in a vertically integrated supply chain, unlike other supermarkets who
outsource their distribution networks. Wegmans controls its distribution process by creating 12
distribution centers in New York and Pennsylvania, which control the selection, distribution, and
transportations for products sold across the Wegman stores (Ferdman, 2015). Customers also
love Wegmans because of its high-quality offering and private label brand, which led to its
ability to turn over inventory much quick than its competitors (Teti, 2015).
Even though the Wegmans company is doing great in the grocery shopping industry, few
weaknesses need to address and opportunities to be explored. Firstly, Wegmans has a spacious
store space which can still expand its operations and networks by increasing its range of product
been sold, and opening flagship stores to offer more variety of products. Again, since the stores
have space in size, the pharmacy operations can be expanded by creating healthcare rooms and
more drugs displayed like the Walmart store pharmacy. Managers can adopt generic strategy
model by re-engineering it existing operational systems or introduce or advance technology
systems that can reduce overall cost of operations or cost structure in order to reduce prices of its
products and services over it rivals.
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Secondly, Wegmans can grow its customer target base in a very highly competitive nature
through an increase in sales and operations. Despite the low price of Wegmans, there are still a
couple of competitors like Walmart and Kroger who still have lower prices than Wegman, and
this makes it difficult to compete with them. Again, managers can expand it sales by increasing
the customer target base, creating customer focus products, and reduce its prices and provide
credits to attract customers. There is a need to increase brand awareness and market shares.
Again, since Wegmans stores are currently operating in only eight states in the United States,
more stores need to create in states where Wegmans stores are not located (Teti, 2019).
Thirdly, Wegmans is a private-owned company and run by a family. Therefore, it has
restrictions on capital mobilization for faster and store expansion. The management and
ownership of the company need to extend beyond the family by opening to the public to invest in
order to raise the capitalization fund for expansion (Johnson & Taylor, 2019). Again, Wegmans
is noted for the practice of favoritism and disparate treatment more workers because family and
friends run it. It is biblically and legally wrong to have such an HR practice environment. Hence
there is a legal to conduct a reasonable and fair working environment to boost and motive the
staff to work hard. According to the Bible, Ephesians 4:2 and 1 Peter 4:8, the teaches about
bearing a love for one another, therefore, need every sphere of the work, there must be equality
in terms of recruitment, promotion, compensation, and assigning responsibilities. The company
must also advance itself in knowledge and skills through research and development, training, and
workshops in order to enrich the work with innovations, initiatives, and the invention of new
products and ideas to expand operations. All these qualities can drive by extensively asking or
depending on God for wisdom and knowledge (Proverbs 9:10). Managers should consider
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developing continuous product innovation or disruptive product innovations to draw sales and
market share away from less innovative rivals or creation of new markets.
Finally, managers may consider expanding their operations internationally in other
countries with the North American Region and beyond to increase their market share and
increase their labor force in order to serve customers faster and better as compared to Walmart.
Again, Walmart has many cashiers and checkout registers. Therefore, a customer spent an
average of two minutes in every checkout register to serve customers, which increases customers'
willingness to shop again with Walmart. Wegman can increase the labor force and adopt other
advance technology to reduce check out time in order to increase customers' willingness to shop
again with Wegmans.
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References
Bolluyt, J. (2018). This is why Wegmans is American’s favorite grocery store. Retrieved from
https://www.cheatsheet.com/culture/this-is-why-wegmans-is-americas-favorite-grocery-
store.html/
Ferdman, R. (2015). Why Wegmans really is the best supermarket in the U.S. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/05/13/why-wegmans-really-is-
the-best-supermarket-in-the-u-s/
Johnson, H and Taylor, K. (2019). Business Insider. Retrieved from
https://www.businessinsider.com/review-of-wegmans-the-best-grocery-chain-in-the-us-
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Teti, K. (2015). Wegmans: The best of four worlds. Retrieved from
https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-rctom/submission/wegmans-the-best-of-four-worlds/
Walmart, (2020). Top ways Walmart is changing how customers shop. Retrieved from
https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2019/01/15/top-ways-walmart-is-changing-
how-customers-shop
Wegmans, (2019). Company overview. Retrieved from
https://www.wegmans.com/about- us/company-overview/
