Kudler Fine Foods

Differentiating Between Market Structures

Michael Bennett

ECO365

December 17, 2012

Elizabeth Hawkins

Differentiating Between Market Structures

Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler Fine Foods competes in the market place by providing an array of specialty foods and gourmet items that are not usually found in the average supermarket. General grocery stores are not in their competitive structure as Kudler Fine Foods (KFF) stocks those items that might be hard to find or just simply too rare to be in a common grocery. Kudler Fine Foods offers a bakery department where the goods are created using unbleached flour, organically raised eggs and Irish butter. These types of baked goods are not common to the average supermarket so the customer that is looking for such types of items will be willing to travel further and pay a little bit more.

The same holds true for the meat department of Kudler Fine Foods. Their meats include dry, aged beef. Beef, to be considered gourmet, must be handled differently than the mass-produced version of the supermarket meat department. The fact that the beef is dry means that it is stored in dry refrigeration rather than humid refrigerated storage of the local grocery store. This promotes even aging of the beef which tends to be a much more tender, flavorful cut. This type of meat handling, not to mention the availability of more exotic poultry like pheasant and quail, make the desirability of Kudler’s meat department much higher. The meat department makes KFF more competitive in the market place.

Another competitive edge of KFF is the produce department. Variety alone places it a step ahead of the average grocer. Because KFF has 16 different varieties of apples, it is difficult to compete with their produce department. Providing produce that appeals to multiple cultures lends to the competitive edge as well. They have identified an increasing Asian population in their demographic, therefore KFF appeals to them...