1. Porter’s Five Forces Model in USA Supermarket Industry

• The Threat of New Entrance (Low)

In the USA supermarket industry, the threat of a new entrance is relatively low. This consideration is achieved by the advantages that already had by the incumbents. For example, Walmart that was considered as a leader in sales for supermarket in USA,[1] Walmart even already grasped the US market share in 1990 with 41%[2], Walmart had a market presence, buying power and breadth of inventory. Moreover, Walmart also spent large amount of capital investment for its IT division and distribution logistics. Walmarts had IT capability to check individual product sales. In consequences, Walmart is the only retailer that can provide real-time sales data for many suppliers. The market power that Walmarts have, make them very easy to bargain with the supplier, this situation makes it harder for the new entrance to compete with Walmarts.

On the other hand, ALDI is considered as a discount grocery chain also has its advantage. ALDI’s unique operating model makes it almost impossible for competitors to match price and quality. Max Levitte, CEO cheapism.com, wrote that one day he visited a store in Ohio and compared ALDI to Kroger and Walmarts, so with the same items in various departments, ALDI was the cheaper for total item in shopping cart, with the gap is more than $13 with Walmarts and more than $21 with Kroger.[3]

The bankruptcy case of Kmart in 2002 also strengthen the argument that the low price advantage of ALDI is hard to be beaten. On the other hand, Walmart’s supply chain efficiencies and the advance of its IT system also almost impossible to be matched by their competitors, especially for the new entrances without heavy capital investment. However, there is an intense rumour that Kroger, one of the biggest supermarket chain after Walmarts, and