Albertsone

Information system helps in efficient distribution systems. It is reducing the labor costs by implementing self-service checkouts. By implementing new software's like oracle and peoplesoft it is helping the firm level economics that gives leverage with the suppliers. The information technology helps Albertson to contract it size in terms of input costs, by reducing the transaction costs. It also reduces the internal costs by reducing the number of middle level management and the clerical workers.

The digital shopping enables the customers to shop digitally for the items online and just pay the bill and pick the goods from the store without waste of time of the customer. But, this might increase the costs and operational stability. Also it requires additional employees do this job, which costs Albertson's.

By, using the hand held device, which can download the data, which was sent online to Albertson's can be downloaded by the costumers and shop the item they want to buy using the GPS to search for the items what exactly they want, leaving no chance for the search or forget the want to purchase.

Introducing the loyalty cards, Albertson can scan and analyze the data like brand, size and etc., the customers are purchasing and give them special discounts which in turn boosts the sales, which increases the profits.

With the help of EDI and RFID and the above-mentioned software, it can track down the sales, which helps the inventory management. By using the high-speed web applications tools they can integrate the supply chain by closely linking marketing, sales operations and logistics.

The analytical software could change the hierarchy of decision-making in Albertson. This software also has a capability to differentiate products of different kind and thus reducing the competition based upon the costs.

Wal-Mart has a vast retail experience and a massive purchasing power and it keeps its inventory to the minimum so only a small portion of amount is invested in the inventory. It has a supply system which is pretty fast in updating the data of the sales to the suppliers every 15 minutes.

Due, to its big-box strategy it is able to sell more products when compared to many other stores. Which still manages to earn 3cents on every dollar they sell.

Wal-Mart pays its employees an average of $8.50/hour and it also doesn't permit its employee's to involve in unions and it also they hires and fires employee's regularly instead of raising their wages except the top level management, which is very unlikely in any other stores. This strategy helps Wal-Mart in maintaining the labor costs low.

Wal-Mart always keeps its technology back door except the express checkouts and the automatic sales update from the cashiers positions, which is connected to a system which monitors the sales data of different items and sends the sales data to the suppliers every fifteen minutes. It is also using the RFID tags to monitor all products to manage its supply chain.

Wal-Mart has opened new neighborhood markets, which are comparatively smaller than the super-centers where there can reach most of its customers.

Albertson being one of the largest food and drug retail stores has lot of scope to expand making the drug store into food and drug store. Since its drug stores has grater margins the costumers coming to drug stores