1.) Identify the five competitive forces and use them to evaluate the profitability/attractiveness of the U.S. retail grocery industry.
2.) What is are the key resource(s)/capability(ies) that give(s) Trader Joe's a competitive advantage?
(For a resource to provide a firm with the potential for sustainable competitive advantage, the resource must be valuable, it must be rare among the firm's current and potential competitors, it must be difficult for competitors to imitate, and the resource must have no strategically equivalent substitutes)
3.) What is the business-level strategy adopted by Trader Joe's? Explain.
a.) Cost Leadership
b.) Differentiation
c.) Cost Leadership & Differentiation Combination
d.) Has changed over time
4.) How would you modify Trader Joe's strategy going forward?