Boston magazine has a piece suggesting that the likelihood that Wegmans will open a downtown Boston store will force Shaws - now owned by Albertsons LLC, after having been sold off by Supervalu - "to come up with additional offerings in order to maintain a competitive edge in the Boston neighborhood." where it would be competing with Wegmans. The sale to Albertsons was only finalized last week.
According to the story, "Shaws has recently been struggling on the corporate side as customers have lost interest in shopping at some locations based on higher prices compared to the competition. According to the Boston Globe, 'once one of the region’s dominant grocery sellers,' customers continue to flock to different chains to get the basic necessities from grocery retailers. The report claims that Shaws 'lost its way' and analysts place the blame on Supervalu Inc., a Minnesota-based supermarket agency that purchased both Shaws and its affiliate, Star Market, more than a decade ago. The Globe cites this eye-popping statistic: Shaw’s sales have eroded by about $1.5 billion since 2006 and its New England market share has dropped from 19 to 11 percent."
If there is good news for Shaws, it is that it "still has time to do some advanced planning, since the Wegmans announcement is still in its first stages, and the company has yet to finalize a deal on a location," Boston reports.
According to the story, "Shaws has recently been struggling on the corporate side as customers have lost interest in shopping at some locations based on higher prices compared to the competition. According to the Boston Globe, 'once one of the region’s dominant grocery sellers,' customers continue to flock to different chains to get the basic necessities from grocery retailers. The report claims that Shaws 'lost its way' and analysts place the blame on Supervalu Inc., a Minnesota-based supermarket agency that purchased both Shaws and its affiliate, Star Market, more than a decade ago. The Globe cites this eye-popping statistic: Shaw’s sales have eroded by about $1.5 billion since 2006 and its New England market share has dropped from 19 to 11 percent."
If there is good news for Shaws, it is that it "still has time to do some advanced planning, since the Wegmans announcement is still in its first stages, and the company has yet to finalize a deal on a location," Boston reports.
- KC's View:
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It ought to go without saying that for Shaws to compete with Wegmans, it has to begin competing before Wegmans even breaks ground on this new store. But it also seems evident to me that Shaws has to find ways to be competitive without competing point-to-point .... it has to define its own differential advantages and exploit them to the greatest degree possible.
