Is this another huge rivalry? Wal-Mart Vs. Target

As everyone here must know, Target has started to locate in Canada. Zellers was bought out and Target is now expanding its business opportunities. Wal-Mart Canada is currently preparing for yet another battle in competitive retail space. Already operating a chain of more than 375 locations across the country with around 94,000 people, they are making plans for a $450-million expansion program that will include the completion of at least 37 supercentre stores over the next fiscal year. This period would be from Feb. 1, 2013 to Jan. 31, 2014, and this isn't just constructing new stores, they will be remodelling or relocating many existing stores. This is expected to create 7,000 store, trade and construction jobs, and for someone who doesn't have a job, Ism definitely looking into that in the future.

 Even without Target, there were many direct competitors such as Sears Canada, Loblaw Cos. and Canadian Tire. But adding to this already crowded market, now Wal-Mart Canada has to deal with its U.S rival as well! While Wal-Mart was able to get leasehold rights to 39 of the stores, Target is planning to open up to 135 stores in former Zellers locations by this spring. Wal-Mart is going to without a doubt take a big hit and notice a drop in sales. 

Other than expanding, Wal-Mart’s other plan of attack is to lower their prices and continuing their supercentre format which Target doesn’t provide. According to the chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Canada, Shelley Broader: "This year, we are ramping up our focus on lowering prices and helping customers lower their cost of living, as we continue to bring our supercentre format to more Canadians.”

I don’t know about you guys, but I'm actually a bit happy about this new rivalry. It is causing these stores to expand (creating more jobs) AND reduce their prices in hopes of attracting more customers. This year it seems that we as consumers are gaining a lot, and we should take advantage while it lasts!

To read the exact article and watch a video on this topic click here

RIM making a comeback while Apple falls from the top?

After a third straight negative quarter, it seems that Apple has an urgent need to improve their technology. Within this time their stocks (Apple Inc.) has dropped 10% while RIM has been constantly increasing. Is it possible that RIM is making a comeback while apple is falling behind? After getting these results, analysts say "Apple needs to get it right in the world's most populous country, where it ranks only sixth in annual smartphone sales and Samsung Electronics remains the runaway leader". Can you guess which country their talking about? It is the most vast growing country this century, China. If they do not secure a deal with China's top mobile seller "China Mobile LTD" it is possible that this decreasing trend might continue. While Samsung continues to expand a make a name in other countries, Apple seems to be focused too much on their few older customers. Sure it's working right now, but in the future Samsung will dominate, even RIM is showing their progress and increasing their stock value. China is a country where smartphones are dominating everyday lives and to have a relationship with them is a major business opportunity. And it's not just the fact that Apple doesn't really have ties to China (phone wise), there are many things other phones provide that the IPhone doesn't have. For instance, the IPhone is losing out in customers because of its limited selection on screen sizes. Many people, especially in China like to watch soap operas on their phones for convenience and the IPhone just can't provide a large enough screen. Based on IDC's latest figure: "around half of the more than 60 million smartphones shipped in China in the third quarter last year had screens that were bigger than 4 inches." 

Apple Inc. lacks in both range of customers AND price. When comparing the prices of the newest android or blackberry phone, the iPhone seems unnecessarily expensive given that they are all new smart phones. If this company does not decide to act on business opportunities in other countries, another option is to lower their prices. Even though iPhone sales have increased 60 percent last quarter, the company may be pricing itself out of a golden opportunity while Samsung and local rivals from take advantage with cheaper phones that rival the iPhone in quality and usability. If the Apple Company doesn't act fast, they might just be leaving investors at a major loss because it no longer compares to the Samsung smart phones. However in contrast to this RIM and Samsung are taking a huge advantage and their stocks are increasing! Anyone holding shares right now should hang on to them, there is no doubt that its value will increase based on the companies' success.

For the exact article you can read it here; http://www.bnn.ca/News/2013/1/25/Apples-China-dilemma-market-share-or-cachet.aspx