24A- Venture Concept No. 1

My business idea is to open a grocery store that gives away free groceries to every 1 in 100 customers that enter the store. The idea is that the increased number of customers that come into my store because of this deal will offset the cost of giving away free groceries. In addition, most grocery stores, even successful ones, have an incredible amount of waste product, therefore this deal will help eliminate waste without having to increase costs too much. The name of this store is Win Big Grocery Store, but that is subject to change if I think of something better.

In terms of opportunity, I believe everybody has the need for my product because everyone needs groceries. However, there are certain demographic groups that the store will be more popular for. I think the biggest opportunity is with young parents with multiple children. This group of people usually buys a lot of groceries to feed the whole family and at the same time they are looking for ways to save money as much as possible. If a young parent buys 200 dollars of groceries a week, they will probably want to shop at the store that gives them the chance of all this food for free. If they end up winning the deal, then they will enjoy their experience so much that they will hopefully become a life-long customer. People are always looking to gamble and win big. A large amount of people constantly buy scratch off lottery tickets daily even if there is a very small chance at winning anything. Shopping at my store can be seen as the same thing, however it does not cost extra money to shop here.

Forces in the environment that can change the success of my business is the economy. The higher the economy, the higher the spending capability of customers. This would cause customers to splurge and buy the more expensive groceries and buy a great quantity. However, I think it may hurt business in the fact that people are not looking for deals as much, so they might rather stick to their already trusted grocery store that they are comfortable with, without putting in effort to find a new store that can possibly save them money. I believe customers do have a certain loyalty to the stores they shop at now. Especially Publix has a large following that are in love with shopping there. However, I think if a store opens up that has the same food quality and gives you the chance to win free groceries, people would be willing to change stores. We want to have a similar culture to Publix where the customer service is extraordinary.

For innovation, I think this is a brand-new idea that will be very popular. I also think that if it is successful, other stores will probably not copy the idea. This is because my store will only have a few locations at most. Large grocery chains won’t change their national policies just because of a few competitive stores. The way it would work is a computer generator will track every 1 in 100 customers that checks out. This will be random and not in order, to ensure that people are not waiting at the checkout area counting to 100. In other words, the first and second customers of the day may win free groceries and then the next person who wins could be the 200^th customer. It is not an exact order, but the computer generator will ensure that 1 in 100 people at the end of the day have been given their order for free. Customers will find out that they won at the check out and when they are about to pay, “Free Groceries” will pop up on the screen and they will be given their order for free. There will be a rule in place that you are not allowed to return any items after you find out if you win or not. This way, people who do not win can’t return all their food.

Venture Concept: The innovation described above addresses the opportunity of giving people an exciting way to save money on groceries. It is a struggle for large families to be able to afford all the food they want to buy. This is why they will choose to shop at my store, if the food is of good quality. It may be difficult at first to get customers to switch from their normal grocery store. There needs to be a good marketing strategy in place to make sure people know that they can shop here and win free food. However, once people start trying my store, and winning free food, I believe it will be easy to make people switch from their previous grocery store of choice. The key is to have great food quality with competitive prices. If I can do that, on top of market my competitive advantage well, there will be no reason for customers to shop anywhere else.

My main competitors are Publix, Walmart, Wholefoods, and Trader Joes. Each has their own weakness whether it be price, customer service, or food quality. I am sure my store will have its weakness too, however we may not find what it is until business has started. The customer experience is very important while defining my business concept. What makes my grocery store different than others is the experience customers have of shopping and the excitement of finding out if you win free groceries. Organization of employees will be very similar to other grocery stores. There is no need to change the typical model. I would like to add another unique part of my store. For example, Publix has Pub Subs that draw customers in. Maybe my grocery store will have a great hot bar for people to get meals. This can be discussed with my team when I hire some employees.

In five years with this venture I want to be ready to open up my first store. I will have to do additional market research and more interviews to see if this idea is worth pursuing. I have done a lot of that in this class, but I will probably have to do more. I will then have to find funding through investors and loans. Then, I will have to find a perfect location with a lot of families nearby and not a lot of competition. Lastly, I will have to put a staff in place and talk with multiple food suppliers. If all this can be done in 5 years, I will be on track to making this idea become an actual business that provides an exciting way for people to grocery shop and save money.