MREmpanada Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

MREmpanada - Research Paper Example I. Fragmentation and/or Concentration As a player in the United States restaurant industry, Mr. Empanada is a fast casual industry and not a fast food company as most people take it. The U.S restaurant industry is characterized by countless actors. The industry has already entered the mature stage of the industry life cycle, as growth of the industry slows own. The united states restaurant industry is fragmented into various subsets, the most popular being the fast food, full service restaurants and the fast casual segments. In a fast food setting, food is prepared before being ordered while in a casual setting, food is prepared after the customer has ordered it. There are hundreds of fast food and fast casual joints in United States that offer products that are intractably similar in almost all aspects. Panera Bread Company is the renowned leader in the casual food subset while McDonald’s is the overall industry leader operating in the fast food segment. The yearly anticipate d growth for the restaurant industry is 1.9% from 2013 through 2018 (The University of Tampa, 2). The slow growth rate is attributable to reduction in consumer disposable income due to prolonged recession period in United States. Consumers opt to consume home cooked means or consumer lower priced items when eating out. This is hurting the growth in the various fragments of the restaurant industry. United States restaurant industry sales ($ billions) (Source: The University of Tampa, 1) II. Switching costs Switching costs are the negative costs that buyers incur due to changing products, brands or suppliers. Switching costs are mostly evaluated in terms of money value, but they may also be time-based, effort based and psychological switching costs. Switching costs may be associated to learning, finding alternatives, ambiguity costs, contractual costs and transaction costs. Switching costs is a control mechanism that exists in most markets (Sundelin, para 1). In the case of Mr. Empana da, there are little or no switching costs as substitutes are readily available. Providers of casual foods are such as the chipotle Mexican grill, Panera bread, Skyline Chili, Donatos Pizza, Freebirds among others, which are easy to locate. Customers who wish to change from Mr. Empanada products and consumer rival products do not incur significant costs. For illustration, learning and compatibility cost is almost zero since the Mr. Empanada and its rival’s products are undifferentiated. Therefore, customers do not have to look and learn new information with regard to rival products. As such, consumers easily change from one Mr. Empanada products to its rivals due to insignificant switching costs or no cost at all. III. Buyer inclination to substitute In the United States restaurant industry, competition is so rife and fierce. As stated earlier, most of the industry’s products are undifferentiated. Customers hardly notice the difference between competitors’ produ cts and this extremely heightens buyers’ inclination to substitute (Porter, 28). In regard to Mr. Empanada, buyer inclination to substitutes is indispensably high. The reason is that Mr. Empanada is not known to many people outside its headquarters in Tampa, Florida. In addition to limited popularity, Mr. Empanada offers few types of salads, beverages, sandwiches that

Self-Reliance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Self-Reliance - Essay Example Conformity, consistency, and regret are three of the barriers to self-reliance (â€Å"Self-Reliance†). People tend to conform to societal expectations and in an attempt of doing so, lose track of their personal goals and desires. Consistency is stated as a barrier to self-reliance because it deprives an individual of the opportunity to experience new things in life, challenge the beliefs inculcated into him/her by others which is required to make informed decisions, and develop more skills. Consistency is repetition and it is a barrier to creativity and innovation, hence also a barrier to self-reliance. Regret is a barrier to self-reliance because it is regressive in effect and does not make any valuable contribution to an individual’s life. It is good to regret but only to the extent that the individual realizes where he/she has done the mistake so that it can be corrected in the future. Regretting about things that the individual cannot do anything about is not produc tive. I can relate to Emerson’s viewpoint on the barriers to self-reliance. I love meat but in an attempt to conform to the expectations of most members of my family who are true vegetarians and consider it ethically unjustified to eat meat, I have remained a vegetarian going against my nature for a long time. I do physical workout quite often. I have noticed that I need to keep changing the ways I do physical workout in order to maintain my interest in the exercise. The same kind of exercise done repeatedly becomes boring. Likewise, consistency in anything creates the room for boredom. My grandfather died a few years ago. I often regret not having spent much time talking to him while he was alive. This regret and realization has made me more caring and loving toward the elderly. I have used my regret in a constructive way to achieve self-reliance rather than letting it become a barrier to that. Steps I can take to achieve self-reliance include taking measures to remove the barriers to