SWOT ANALYSIS ON Safeway Inc.

[abhishreshthaa]

Safeway Inc. , a Fortune 500 company, is North America's third largest supermarket chain, with, as of December 29, 2007, 1743 stores located throughout the western and central United States and western Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern Seaboard. The company is headquartered in Pleasanton, California. Supermarket News ranked Safeway No. 4 in the 2007 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2006 fiscal year estimated sales of $40.5 billion. Based on 2005 revenue, Safeway is the tenth largest retailer in the United States.



Strengths

* High percentage of stores recently remodeled into "Lifestyle" format
* Real estate
* Blackhawk Network (gift card company)
* Private label brands


Weaknesses

* Pricing image
* Generally more expensive real estate brings higher expenses
* Markets outside of California historically not performing in line with core market
* Labor unions

Opportunities

* Shopper insights
* Private label development
* Format/store/department innovation
* Blackhawk growth
* Expansion into healthcare services

Threats

* Competition from EDLP/EDLC operators - Tesco, Wal-Mart, Kroger
* Pricing image - how to evolve past that?
* Highly vested in store Lifestyle remodeling program
* Shopper driven programs risk driving too much complexity at store level