Groceries - Publications - Faculty & Research

13 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

3 Ways Firms Can Profit From Environmental Investments

2014 report from Boston Consulting Group, some two-thirds of total growth in the grocery sector has come from "responsible consumption" products. For example, organic grocer Whole Foods' annual revenues have increased steadily in the past... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Energy; Utilities

02 Apr 2008
Research & Ideas

Four Companies that Conquered America

retailer, to enter the U.S. market with the new Fresh & Easy chain of discount grocery stores. Avoiding geographies where Wal-Mart is entrenched, Tesco has so far opened 50 stores in the growth markets of California, Nevada, and... View Details

Keywords: by John Quelch

12 Apr 2004
Research & Ideas

What Great American Leaders Teach Us

the war ended, Phillips was well positioned to meet the pent-up needs of consumers. His counterpart, Clarence Saunders, who founded Piggly Wiggly, was a consummate Mold-Breaker. He fundamentally revolutionized grocery shopping by... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne

25 Mar 2001
Research & Ideas

Who Wants to Be an Entrepreneur? [Part II]

pressed pleats? Krasnow worked at General Foods for two years, developing fast-food products for the home kitchen. Then he joined the Jewel Companies, a food retailer, first bagging groceries at a Star Market in Cambridge, and later... View Details

Keywords: by John S. Rosenberg

17 Mar 2022
Research & Ideas

Navigating Tradeoffs: How Purpose Becomes a Company's ‘Lighthouse in the Storm’

afford groceries is the reason we see so much plastic in grocery aisles today. “Despite our best efforts, Gotham Greens is a small company with limited influence in the packaging sector. Changing the... View Details

Keywords: by Ranjay Gulati

15 Feb 2000
Lessons from the Classroom

Delivering Information Services: A 30-Year Perspective

example of a non-high-tech company we study is H.E. Butt Grocery Company. This is a large, very successful privately held chain in southern Texas that has used technology to combat some of the threats of its competitors, including... View Details

Keywords: by Staff

19 Jun 2018
First Look

New Research and Ideas, June 19, 2018

broad sell-off in the shares of grocery retailers and suppliers. Behind the precipitous declines lay recognition that Amazon’s bold move into brick and mortar assets offered transformational opportunities. Amazon could gain expertise in... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

28 Oct 2013
Research & Ideas

Responsible Leadership in an Unforgiving World

brands, forever on the lookout for new opportunities; home life has become an act of managing supply chains, outsourcing housecleaning, childcare, and even grocery shopping to others; and churches market themselves like fast food... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

02 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Retail Reaches a Tipping Point—Which Stores Will Survive?

of a category, that starts to create trouble. Amazon already has a significant percentage of almost every category except groceries and hardware. If ecommerce gets to 10, 15, or 20 percent of a category, your business is in real, serious... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

02 Apr 2015
Research & Ideas

Digital Initiative Summit: Big Messages, Small Screens, Many Choices

is, if the app is the way we interact with the brands, how do you get me to be one of your favorite apps?" Gupta said that a successful app must provide obvious, unique value—and meet consumers where they live. As an example, he cited the View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

12 May 2003
Research & Ideas

How Hot is the “Hot Spot” Business?

future Wi-Fi users, those who access wireless services with their PDAs. For example, imagine a trip to the grocery store where you pull out your PDA to download your shopping list and store coupons, all being delivered via a local... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne & Martha Lagace; Technology; Communications; Telecommunications

17 Mar 2015
Research & Ideas

Where Did My Shopping Mall Go?

going to make the food space more vulnerable in the next five years. There is going to be enormous change, both because of the way people eat and because new models are starting to come into the equation that will erode the brick-and-mortar business. You see it... View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Retail

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Confronting the Challenges that Face Bricks-and-Mortar Stores

cart altered the purchasing patters of customers when it was introduced over 60 years ago. Today's technologies can have equally profound effects on consumers' behavior. For example, a Swedish grocery store discovered that by... View Details

Keywords: by Raymond Burke; Retail

27 Jul 2011
Research & Ideas

Customer Loyalty Programs That Work

president and CEO of grocery chain Stop & Shop. In 2007, certain brands of pet food manufactured in China and sold at several locations were found to be contaminated with melamine. Many pets became sick, and some even died. Through it... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Retail

24 Sep 2007
Research & Ideas

The FDA: What Will the Next 100 Years Bring?

to provide insights. Sean Silverthorne: What has been the impact of the FDA in daily life over the last 100 years? Without the FDA, what would change about how we live our lives? Arthur A. Daemmrich: Picture yourself walking into a View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Biotechnology; Consumer Products; Food & Beverage; Health

15 Jan 2008
First Look

First Look: January 15, 2008

http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-045.pdf I'll Have the Ice Cream Soon and the Vegetables Later: Decreasing Impatience over Time in Online Grocery Orders Authors:Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers, and Max H. Bazerman Abstract How do... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

28 Oct 2014
First Look

First Look: October 28

examines the operations strategy of Whole Foods, one of the largest natural grocery chains in the United States. In late 2013, Whole Foods was expanding rapidly, with a publicly stated goal of growing from 351 to 1,000 domestic stores by... View Details

Keywords: Carmen Nobel

29 Oct 2000
Research & Ideas

Building a Powerful Prestige Brand

made each week to the grocery store, druggist, or dry cleaners. The Lauders hoped to use the novelty and leisurely enjoyment that women connected with upscale department stores to demonstrate their products and stimulate impulse buying.... View Details

Keywords: by Nancy F. Koehn; Beauty & Cosmetics; Consumer Products; Retail

22 Dec 2016
Op-Ed

The Small Business Administration is a Model for How to Drive Economic Growth

restaurants, dry cleaners, and local grocery stores—form the backbone of communities across America and they are responsible for about 40 million jobs. And, as Mercedes Delgado and I show in research released earlier this year, small... View Details

Keywords: by Karen Mills

04 Apr 2017
First Look

First Look at New Research, April 4

to develop Alfred’s routes and respond to customer requests in conjunction with other service providers, for example grocery delivery services, in what the founders describe as their "B2B2C" business model. Alfred won the... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

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