Artifact Name Introduction to Business Chapter 1 Discussion Board, Chapter
8 Discussion Board, Internship at BJAMS (Reflection), and
Small Business Plan (Ownership, Regulations, and Contracts) Core Competency Government and Legal Environment- The student will demonstrate a working understanding of a business' responsibility to know, abide by, and enforce laws and regulations that affect business operations and transactions. Course Subject Introduction to Business Last Update September 2013, December 2013, March 2014,and March 2014 Rationale I included the both the Introduction to Business discussion board questions because I feel the cover the relationship between business and government well also discussing business regulations. Chapter 1 discussion board is about a Wal-Mart and what it will do for the government. Chapter 8 discussion board about a woman who eat Ben & Jerrys ice cream and was upset due to the lack of brownies, so we had to figure out what the business regulation was to make this woman happy and buy the ice cream again. My internship at BJAMS is included because working in a school you have to make sure the class/school is clean, safe, and meets the standards that are set. The last artifact I included is my small business plan the section that discusses ownership, regulations, and contracts. I included this section because it shows if my business has any contracts or regulations that have to be followed and if my business will be part of labor unions or not. Knowledge
From all these projects I learned a lot of items in the law and regulations that the government has set in place for business. From Introduction to Business chapter 1 I learned about the taxes that business have and the relationship that business have with the government. Chapter 8 I learned a few different items then I did in chapter 1 such as what laws and regulations has to follow to be able to be part of the government business. My internship at BJAMS I got to have first hand experiences in how a school has to follow the sanitary regulations that the government has set and the safety they have to enforce within the school environment. Small business plan I learned what a labor union is and what type of business are part of labor unions such as schools. I also learned if my small business would have any regulations or contracts but it will not due to my business will be in my house will just one employee. Skills Introduction to Business both chapter 1 and 8 I used the skills of research and writing. I had to write responses on my knowledge of the questions. With my internship I had to use the skills of patience and helping. I had to help with keep the classroom clean and I had to use patience because when a child is acting up to keep them safe you have to have patients and work with them. For the small business plan the main skill that was used was research I had to look different definitions to words to apply into my small business write up. Growth and Improvement Statement
I believe that there could be improvement and growth in every project I take part of. In these particular projects I see growth in how I respond to the questions for Introduction to Business discussion board. Improvement in my internship at BJAMS could have been cleaning the room up more without being told or not getting frustrated with the students when they were acting up. In the small business plan I believe I could have improved in how I understand the information by doing a little more research and adding more information.
A Wal-Mart Supercenter is coming to Derby, Vermont. Wal-Mart Supercenters have opened in more than 3,211 locations throughout the U.S. since their inception in 1988. These outlets offer a retail format that has the potential to have a major economic and quality of life impact on a community. Customer satisfaction, a primary goal of Wal-Mart, is achieved through convenience (one-stop shopping) and low prices. Wal-Mart has managed to out-compete other generalists, such as Kmart and Target, through effective marketing and aggressive expansion policies. Target has shifted its focus to higher quality products at reasonable prices, while Kmart has made a less than successful attempt to compete directly with Wal-Mart by opening its own supercenters, known as Big Kmart. Wal-Marts margins reflect a competitive advantage, however, and customer satisfaction is directly responsible.
Emergence of a new Wal-Mart Supercenter means many things to smaller trade areas. For example, a new 213,000 square foot Wal-Mart Supercenter with approximately five acres of floor space opened its doors in Fort Collins, Colorado. The new store was in addition to a previously existing, but smaller Wal-Mart Supercenter on the other side of Fort Collins. The city has just 117,000 residents, but is surrounded by several smaller cities and communities that expand the trade area to at least 200,000. Sales revenues at this store were expected to average $2 million per week, yielding annual sales tax revenues for the city estimated at $2.2 million. The development of the surrounding shopping center was expected to lead to large volumes of traffic. Five retail stores rent space inside the goliath facility, including a fast food chain, a hair salon and a portrait studio. Further plans for the shopping center include a large home improvement store such as Home Depot or Lowes, a bike shop, a bank, and several restaurants.
The effect of a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the local economy is not limited to sales tax revenues and increased business. It also involves many local retail operations, sometimes referred to as Mom & Pop stores. Supercenters have driven Wal-Mart to become one of the largest corporations in America. In addition, Wal-Mart is currently the highest volume grocery seller, surpassing chains such as Safeway, Albertsons and Kroger, which focus specifically on groceries and do not provide the complete product lines found in a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Many people feel the introduction of a large retailer with those kinds of assets causes local businesses to fail. Citizens also have to reconcile using limited tax dollars for infrastructure development, such as roads, traffic lights, and water/sewer lines, for sprawling development.
Special interest groups, ranging from environmentalists to older citizens not wishing to see their small town turn into a metropolis, often oppose the development of a sprawling new facility. In some instances, historic sites are developed in deference to their cultural value. In Davidson County, Tennessee, for example, rezoning was approved by a business-friendly city council for a Wal-Mart and Lowes shopping center that destroyed a Native American burial site and a historic civil war site on the Cumberland River. In Russell County, Virginia, a similar controversy emerged over the proposal of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in an industrial site of marginal industrial (coal mining) capacity. Local residents feared that a precedent might be set allowing other, perhaps more lucrative, industrial sites to become commercial space for large multinational corporations, thus hurting local economic development. Local businesses also feared the competitive advantage a large retailer would have, possibly resulting in a negative effect on the local economy.
One Wal-Mart Supercenter may bring more than 450 jobs to an area. The increase in employment largely reflects part-time employees with low average incomes but includes a few larger salaries associated with store managers, assistant store managers, pharmacists, and the like. This increase in jobs can be good for local economies, as well as national employment figures. In fact, Wal-Mart is the nations leading employer. While some small businesses may fail, it is often claimed that more jobs are created by the opening of a supercenter. In addition, Wal-Mart often pays higher wages and more benefits than a small mom and pop store can pay its employees.
However, many people remain unconvinced that Wal-Mart is an asset to local economies. Typical fears of local residents may include traffic congestion, environmental degradation (including increased sprawl), the negative effects on downtown commerce, the fact that money spent at Wal-Mart might not be recycled in the town, and the sense that the town would lose its homey identity. Thus, many times a new development of this magnitude faces several political, legal, regulatory and citizen hurdles before it can become a reality. For example, over 150 communities in America and Canada have pressured big- box retailers such as Wal-Mart into withdrawing plans or have publicly voted to reject their retail development. Citizen groups usually employ a number of delay and avoidance tactics. These may include lawsuits, protests, pigeonholing of local politicians, and town hall meetings. Most of these citizen-based initiatives fail, however.
There have been success stories of small towns preventing construction of Wal-Mart Supercenters. For example, residents of the small town of Old Saybrook, Connecticut, were able to fight off a Wal-Mart Supercenter. To do so, the citizens had to raise sufficient money to hire professional help and legal counsel, organize protests, circulate petitions, and raise awareness of the issue. They were able to convince three local political bodies to block the multinational corporation and have since established a Web site to help other small communities to follow their successful methods.
In Fort Collins, the history of the Wal-Mart Supercenter project spans back about seven years before the store opened. City Council and Zoning Board meetings often were packed with emotional and highly vocal citizens, both for and against the proposal, and many times ran into the early morning hours. As a result of this lengthy approval period, the location of the store changed once, wasting years of planning by Wal-Mart officials. Planning and Zoning Board decisions were overturned by a citywide election, which approved the new shopping center on a very thin margin. Several lawsuits, both real and threatened, were attempted in order to stop the development or, in contrast, to stop the deterrence of the development.
In the end, the shopping centers in both Fort Collins, CO, and Russell County, VA, became reality despite local unrest. The Fort Collins stores opening brought in more than 5,000 shoppers on its first day, while concerns over traffic, infrastructure, and economic impacts persist. For example, city engineers expect the intersection where the store is located to be inadequate to handle the expected traffic. It also remains to be seen whether Wal-Mart will drive many local retailers out of business, as it has in other small towns, or whether it will mean increased economic development and subsequent improved business for many other companies.
So what effect does Wal-Mart have on smaller towns and smaller companies? In a study of competition and retail structure published in the Journal of Marketing (1999), authors Miller, Reardon, and McCorkle explored the relation of superstores, such as Wal-Mart and Kmart, to saturation (measured as number of stores per household) of the competitors. They found that as saturation by generalist (such as Wal- Mart) increased, broad-line specialist (for example, sporting goods, electronics, and furniture stores) saturation did as well. However, the positive effect did not carry over to saturation of limited-line specialist (e.g., Mom and Pop stores). The authors did not test the potential negative effect of generalist saturation on limited-line specialist saturation.
Other studies have shown that most shoppers prefer to do their shopping at large discount stores, potentially disrupting business on small towns main streets and downtowns. Some studies show that Wal-Marts can be good for downtowns, but highly disruptive to surrounding (within a 20 mile radius) communities downtowns, as customers are likely to drive to another town to do their shopping. These studies indicate a negative trend for other retailers when a Wal-Mart Supercenter emerges in the town. Indeed, many downtowns have become vacant in an attempt to directly compete with Wal-Mart, while some have thrived. The secret of which stores do well in a downtown setting may rely on customer focus and finding a niche. Even though there may be controversy, the growth of Wal-Mart Supercenters is expected to continue at a rapid rate. ************************************************************* Question 1 of 2: Do you feel the entry of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in a small trade area (<200,000 population) is positive or negative for the quality of life in that area? Defend your answer after taking a positive or negative position.
The members of the community that will most likely oppose a Wal-Mart Supercenter are the small business owners. Im sure they will not want to deal with the competition. Their objections may be that Wal-Mart can supply more goods and services that they can. Also, thedemand for name brand products will go up and only Wal-Mart will be able to provide enough for the community. Equilibrium price will be another issue because Wal-Mart can have a lower price for products than the small businesses can. Wal-Mart has the natural, human, and financial resources that mom and pop shops simply dont. Wal-Mart can answer the complaints by making some sort of agreement with local stores that they will not sell certain items. If the owners at Wal-Mart respect local businesses enough they can agree not to run them out of business by having selling different products. Here's a short video on a pregnant woman eating Ben & Jerry's ice cream. 1. Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFrQOP5D20g 2. Refer to the "Managing Quality" section in your textbook. Recommend the process(es) that Ben & Jerry's should implement/consider to ensure this doesn't happen again
Ben & Jerry's incurred a problem with one of customers consuming some of their world famous ice cream. Instead of enjoying it, the pregnant customer was not pleased, and decided to slam them with a YouTube video discussing her displeasure. The company's mission is to make, distribute and sell the finest quality all natural ice cream and euphoric concoctions with a continued commitment to incorporating wholesome, natural ingredients and promoting business practices that respect the Earth and the Environment. However one simple mistake in production brought on some bad publicity, and questioned their credibility. Quality control may have been supreme, and top notch, but one ice cream container sold to one random customer had zero standards held to it. The flavor was chocolate fudge brownie, yet the displeased customer found not a single brownie in her whole container. Something went wrong during manufacturing and left the ice cream without any extra goodies. Instead of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream she simply had plain chocolate ice cream. Still good, but where are the brownie pieces that she paid for and expected? The customization of their different ice creams is key. They meet each customers individual tastes. To keep meeting their individuals needs and not mess up again they should take some extra steps. Ben & Jerry's next time could avoid this by testing samples, or checking each container for any flaws or weight differences. I feel that this is a little of a unrealistic suggestion but it could work if during their operations they took some extra steps to insure great quality.
1/29 -I was helping with cutting out pictures, keeping the classroom clean, and watching the students.
Ownership, Regulations, Contracts For my small business I will not have any regulation fees because my business is a business that does not need any licenses, registrations, and will not have any insurance or taxes. It will not have any insurance or taxes because the business will be ran from a small house office.
Many business these days employees are part of a labor union which is an employee organization formed to deal with employers for achieving better pay, hours or working conditions. My small business will only have one employee an assistant so I believe she/he will not have to be part of a union due to the fact that I will work something out with them that will benefit and make them happy well working for me. I will make a contract with my employee and within the contract I will include what there wage financial reward based on number of hours worked will be and the benefits nonfinancial form of compensation provided to an employee such as health insurance and made holidays. In the contract I will also include a chance for promotion advancement to a higher level job with increased pay and responsibility as my business gets larger because they were there first and would benefit from the promotion the most.