Differentiating Between Market Structures in Kudler

Differentiating Between Market Structures in Kudler

ECO/365

July 29, 2013

Differentiating Between Market Structures in Kudler

Kathy Kudler is the owner if three stores in Southern California. Kudler Fines Foods (KFF) commits to provide its customers with the finest selections of foods and wines available on the market within Southern California. Kathy’s vision is, “to be the premiere gourmet grocery store for discerning shoppers seeking the best meats, produce, cheeses, and wines.” (Apollo Group, Inc., 2011). This is an analysis of Kathy’s vision to create a monopolistic competition market structure, market overview, and the business’s placement within this type of marketplace.

The 2011 market survey, which Kudler produced, indicated that there were strengths in several areas. The survey’s indicated that the store hours were convenient and the atmosphere for shopping was appealing. The customers were also satisfied with the quality of products that were offered with satisfaction leaning toward the variety of merchandise. A weakness was revealed in that customers found customer service below standards. “Only 40.3% of the 2011 survey responders agreed that the value of the products was good for the money, and only 62.5% agreed that customer service representatives were courteous.” (Apollo Group, Inc., 2011). This weakness could be seen by a competitor as a way into the gourmet food market as a way to offer better customer satisfaction.

Kudler’s market structure is a monopolistic competition market structure. The monopolistic competition market structure includes many businesses, such as grocer’s, selling slightly different products.” There are also multiple dimensions of competition including distribution outlets, advertising, and product attributes” (Colander, 2010). There are benefits to the monopolistic competition market structure in that businesses are able to act independently when considering making changes to adapt to customer needs. Kudler can...