Week 7 BOC: Largest Retailers

One of the big questions is what is the largest retailer in the United States as well s in the World? Walmart is considered to be one of the largest retailers in both the world and the United States.  “Wal-mart's global retail sales total led $421 billion in 2010, and the U.S. accounted for 72.9% of its overall sales. The chain ran 4,358 stores in 2010 up 1.3% from the previous year. “(http://www.businessinsider.com) Since 2010, and previous years as well, Walmart has been consider to be one of the largest retailer throughout the world. In 2010 Walmart’s US retail sales were $307.7 billion, in just one year their stock increased 11.38%. Walmart is one of the retail companies that are considered to be one of the largest retailers, although they are not the largest retailer of food, music, and fashion.  The Kroger Company is one of the top largest food retailers in the United States with retail sales of $92.17 billion in 2012. “Kroger moved up one position to become the fifth largest retail chain in the world. It is no small feat to overtake Germany’s largest discount store chain and lead with the Costco Wholesale chain, which also sells a significant amount of groceries and food products.” (http://retailindustry.about.com) Kroger has proven to everyone in the United States as well as the world why they are in the first five places of the largest retailers in the world. Target and Costco in the United States for the year of 2012 they have been very close in retail sales. Target’s retail sales were $71.96 billion and for Costco it was $71.04 billion. For the music industry, Apple/ Itunes is considering to be one of the largest music sellers in the United States as well as in the World. For the United States the second largest retailer to sell music is walmart, but in Europe the second largest is Spotify. For the fashion industry the largest retailer is Inditex, as we know as Zara. “In March, Inditex reported a significant 22 percent rise in full year net profit, to €2.4 billion, largely thanks to its rapid expansion into other markets that helped it pull away from dependence on Europe amid its economic crisis.”( http://www.ibtimes.com) Although there are different retailers that focus on different products, Walmart is one of the retailers that have more retail sales throughout the United States and the world.

Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/here-are-the-top-15-retailers-2011-7?op=1
http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/topics/e-commerce/americas-largest-retailers-brick-and-mortars-dominate-30857/attachment/stores-top-10-us-retailers-in-2012-july2013/
http://retailindustry.about.com/od/worldslargestretailers/a/us-2013-worlds-largest_biggest_best_retail_grocery-stores-supermarkets_chains_ranking.htm
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2008/04/apple-passes-wal-mart-now-1-music-retailer-in-us/
http://www.ibtimes.com/inditex-worlds-largest-fashion-retailer-posts-weakest-profit-growth-years-cool-europe-spring-kept
http://retailindustry.about.com/od/topusretailcompanies/a/us_2013_worlds-largest_retail_companies_chains_retailers_biggest_American_globalpower_2.htm

Week 6 BOC: Tylenol Scare 1982

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/161995443/
why-tylenol-bottles-are-hard-to-open

Tylenol is considered to be one of the most trusted medicine product across the US.  “Before the crisis, Tylenol was the most successful over-the-counter product in the United States with over one hundred million users. Tylenol was responsible for 19 percent of Johnson & Johnson's corporate profits during the first 3 quarters of 1982.” (http://www.ou.edu) Unfortunately Tylenol had a scare crisis on September 29^th, 1982. This company went through a scare crisis after seven people died in Chicago for taking cyanide-laced capsules of Extra-Strength Tylenol. “During the fall of 1982, for reasons not known, a malevolent person or persons, replaced Tylenol Extra-Strength capsules with cyanide-laced capsules, resealed the packages, and deposited them on the shelves of at least a half-dozen or so pharmacies, and food stores in the Chicago area.” (http://www.ou.edu)  This is what caused the seven deaths in the Chicago area. The Extra-Strength Tylenol product was considered to be one of the best- selling products in the country. After the seven deaths and the huge scare that happened for Tylenol “the company’s market value fell by $1bn as a result.”(http://www.mallenbaker.net) After the scare that happened many people as well as marketers thought that the company would never recover. “But only two months later, Tylenol was headed back to the market, this time in tamper-proof packaging and bolstered by an extensive media campaign.” (http://www.nytimes.com) The Tylenol, Johnson & Johnson Company took care of the crisis by showing the public that they do care about their consumers.  The company spent more than $100 million for the 1982 recall and also to relaunch the products of Tylenol. The company recalled about 31 million bottles of Tylenol capsules from all of the shelves in the stores and pharmacies. They replace the product and made sure it was a safer capsule.  Tylenol made a new safe way of packaging all of their products. They were the inventors of creating new well-protected packages security seals for all of their products. After this situation, many companies began to secure their products just like how Tylenol did with its products.

http://blog.threekingsconsulting.com/tag/tylenol-scare/

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/23/your-money/23iht-mjj_ed3_.html

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-09-29-tylenol-poisonings_N.htm

http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/02C2/Johnson%20&%20Johnson.htm

http://www.mallenbaker.net/csr/crisis02.php