Location and Supply Chain - Wawa

A recent article in the Philly Inquirer (April 16, Page A1, "How Success Came to Wawa") recounts the history of the Wawa chain since their launch 45 years ago. Starting as a milk delivey service, Wawa then decided to initiate grocery sales inside brick-and-mortar locations. Key to their success was learning to select prime locations with heavy commuter traffic and to cater to customer's specific needs. Even coffee - now their signature product - was an evolutionary offering after a customer requested a cup from the clerk's personal percolator. Since Wawa had only offered simple groceries and no prepared foods at that point, they had to develop a whole new line in their supply chain, including the ground coffee , percolators, cups, serving bars, and so on.

Don't know if Wawa was to first to offer freshly brewed coffee from a convenience store, but they've sure been successful at it.

Keith

Quote about leadership

“Leaders do not avoid, repress, or deny conflict, but rather see it as an opportunity.”

~Warren Bennis (1925 – )American scholar, writer

When employee theft or shoplifting occurs it is robbing a business owner of their profit. Not only is employee theft ans shoplifting unethical, but it is also illegal. Specialty Retail Report is an online and published magazine that specializes in reaching the retail industry. They are dedicated to the promotion, growth and success of the specialty retail industry. I have attached a good article that I found on their website that discusses what step and precautionary measures a business owner can take to reduce or eliminate theft be it by employees or by customers.

~Angela

http://www.specialtyretail.com/2008/fall/running_a_cart_kiosk/strategies_to_prevent_shoplifting_and_retail_theft

The Layout in Your Small Retail Business is Critically Important

As I mentioned in the tidbit posting I found the information in Chapter 16 about retail layout to be really interesting. The article found on this website gives some more insight as to why it is critically important for a business owner to really examine their small and use it to the best of their advantage.

~Angela

http://www.allgreatloans.com/layout-your-small-retail-business-critically-important-a-243.html

Managing Inventory

http://bizcovering.com/management/managing-inventory-obsolescence-for-improved-performance/
This is an article that details some step-by-step guidelines for managing inventory. I like the idea of establishing an "Inventory Management Review Team" that together reviews the inventory and makes decisons regarding what to do with inventory. The guidelines also include defining "obsolete", allowing better decision making regarding what items should or should not be in inventory. The article lists concrete steps and action plans to help business owners manage invnetory.

Choosing a business location

http://www.allbusiness.com/operations/facilities-real-estate-office-leasing/11153-1.html
This article is about factors to consider when choosing a location for a new business. Factors include knowing your business, finding customers, getting a "flavor" for the community, checking out the competition, evaluating traffic in the area, assessing the building, and balancing cost with other factors.
I think the tips would be helpful for any business owners and also liked how the tips went along with the information we read about business planning. It seems that everything goes back to our initial chapters.

The Pros of Planting Startups in Smaller Cities

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/mar2009/sb20090327_385972.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_getting+started

This is a cool aticle about the best locations to do start-ups and even tells you the best place in each state.

The best place in PA; Radnor

Small Business Capital

All start up business require capital and sometimes this means taking a loan. This article gives the low down on financing options for starting up a small business to get the capital one needs.

~Angela

http://sbinformation.about.com/od/creditloans/a/ucbusinessloan.htm

E-Commerce

This website is for the E-Commerce Times, an online "newspaper" that offers blogs, services, articles and podcasts on a variety of topics including e-commerce, business, technology anf current hot topics. A good resource for anyone involved in e-commerce or looking to get into e-commerce.

~Angela

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/

A new Trend

Hey Everyone,
Kelly asked me if I would be willing to share with the class about a a new business my family has just bought into. It fits in nicely with the way a number of small businesses are coming up with new creative trends that are very economical and will attract people.

Our new teardrop trailer business was started because of a growing trend for people looking for an economical way to go on vacation and be part of the "green" trend.These trailers are light to tow-only affecting your m.p.g. by no more than 2 m.p.g. or less. With some vehicles, they have actually increased their m.p.g. due to the streamlined design! Their teardropshape has caught alot of people's attention and that is obvious by the heavy traffic we are getting on them with our new dealership of them. We have already placed 4 orders for customers and we haven't officially opened the doors yet! We get so many phonecalls that we haven't wanted to turn away potential customers even though our showroom is not all ready. A new design for a Little Guy Teardrop trailer is in the works to install flexible solar panels on the roof of the teardrop camper and to incorporate a substantial battery array into the design of the trailer, providing a significant source of additional power for the electric or hybrid tow vehicle. They also plan to include a biodiesiel generator that runs on vegetable oil or french fry oil. The solar panels can recharge the batteries while the vehicle is in tow, and the generator can replenish battery charge whenever the vehicle is stopped. They hope to extend the range of a hybrid tow vehicle by a factor of two. This would enable a Toyota Prius, for example, to drive from Akron, Ohio to Disney World on one tank of gas plus the initial charge of the battery array and the small biodiesiel reservoir." They are one of the first in their industry to do this and others will soon follow this trend.