Ralphs vs. Albertson - Essay Example

Ralphs vs. Albertson Ralphs and Albertson are some of the leading grocery stores in United s. Although Ralph was started almost more than hundred years ago Albertson could give a tough competition even after establishing decades after Ralph was founded. Albertson now has its stores across coast to coast approximately two thousand three hundred food and drug stores. The reason Albertson could develop such an extent was that it gives best value and service to the costumers and in combined sizes.

It has food stores and drug stores and also combination of food and drug stores and also fuel centers. Albertson is head quartered in Bois Idaho.Ralph is headquartering in Cincinnati Ohio. Later Ralph was acquired by Kroger from Fred Meyers. The reason behind the success story of Ralph is that the founder believed in two philosophies and his innovation. He value priced top quality product and costumer comes first service intention. And his innovative approach to traditional handling of fresh produce brought accolades by all the customers.

Albertson took lead and developed to leaps and bounds their approach to customer service. Albertson stores efficiently utilize their capital assets in developing their stores. This also includes establishing new stores in new neighborhood. Albertson stores were very innovative and were specifically designed to perfectly fit in the neighborhood. Albertson stores approach of new projects was very advanced and was based on teamwork; generation of new ideas and the most important was implementation of best practice.

Compared to Ralph Albertson stores use its capital and non capital assets in a manner that it should again fetch income. Albertson leased out its surplus properties that fetch a decent income and some of the properties are even sold at a higher price than acquired. Albertson stores earn higher profits as compared to Ralph. Albertson can manage their assets and employees with a better understanding and total control on employees unlike Ralph, which struck in labor settlement with federal government.

Ralphs have an unusual ability to manage their transport system and could take maximum work out of the number of vehicles employed for a store. On the other hand Albertson uses their vehicle assets and other facilities to cater to the customer needs. Risk management is one of the primary concerns for Albertson since they are always on a new project investing millions of dollars establishing stores that are designer made to fit the neighborhood. Albertson is far better managed as far as risk management is concerned.

It has whole department for managing financial and labor issues in the time of natural calamities and labor law. They have additional funds to deal with such issues. Ralphs stores though less in number but is ideally equipped to counter issues like riots, inflation, decreased sales and during unseason. Ralph is now under the banner of Kroger and its individual sales show up far less than Albertson since Albertson is a single entity with all its operations under one banner. Hence Albertson is in every way better managed even in cash flow management.

ReferencesAlbertson. Store development. [2006]. Retrieved July 19, 2006, http://www1.albertsons.com/corporate/storedev/sd_main.aspcat=5&subcat=0Kroger. Operations Overview. [2006]. Retrieved July 19, 2006http://www.thekrogerco.com/operations/operations.htm