Using the Marketing Principles/Concepts, perform a compare/contrast analysis on the following.

Choose one store from each category:

Mass grocery stores such as:

Price Chopper

HyVee

Hen House

Specialty grocery stores such as:

Whole Foods

Sprouts

Aldi

Trader Joe's

Visit each store and answer the following questions:

1. What are the most obvious differences between the two store concepts? Be specific with your examples. I.E., store design, consumer demographic, store location, product assortment/display.

2. What type of advertising mediums does each store use?

3. Do the stores offer any kind of frequent shopper/rewards program?

4. What type of differentiation is used to compel a consumer to shop at each store?

5. Choose 3 items that you purchase on a regular basis and compare the pricing of each item at each store. If there is a significant difference in pricing discuss the rationale that the higher-priced store might have in justifying their higher prices.

6. From a consumer perspective, why do you shop at these stores? (if you don't frequent either/both stores, are you compelled to start based on your analysis?

7. Using the 4 P's of marketing, how effective is each store?

8. What day/time of day did you visit each store and what was the store traffic like?

9. What level of customer service did you experience?

10. Based on your analysis, which store is more effective with their marketing and why?