busn1179 Professional Relations

Assignment Instructions:

1. Read the following case: Supermarket—Presidents Choice Company Overview Loblaw Companies Limited is Canada’s food and pharmacy leader, the nation’s largest retailer, and the majority unit holder of Choice Properties Real Estate Investment Trust. Loblaw provides Canadians with grocery, pharmacy, health and beauty, apparel, general merchandise, banking, and wireless mobile products and services. With more than 2,300 corporate, franchised and Associate-owned locations, Loblaw, its franchisees, and Associate-owners employ approximately 192,000 fulland part-time employees, making it one of Canada’s largest private sector employers. Loblaw’s purpose – Live Life Well – puts first the needs and well-being of Canadians who make one billion transactions annually in the companies’ stores. Loblaw is positioned to meet and exceed those needs in many ways: convenient locations; more than 1,050 grocery stores that span the value spectrum from discount to specialty; full-service pharmacies at more than 1,250 Shoppers Drug Mart and Pharmaprix locations and more than 500 Loblaw locations; no-fee banking with PC Financial; affordable Joe Fresh fashion and family apparel; and three of Canada’s top consumer brands in Life Brand®, noname® and President’s Choice®. Through the PC Plus™ and Shoppers Optimum® loyalty programs, more than one in every three Canadians are rewarded for shopping with the companies. Mission and Values Our Mission To be Canada’s best food, health and home retailer by exceeding customer expectations through innovative products at great prices. We're driven by our responsibility to: • Respect the Environment • Source with Integrity • Make a Positive Difference in Our Community • Reflect Our Nation’s Diversity • Be a Great Place to Work Our Values Our Values clarify what is important in our organization, and guide our behavior and decision making. • CUSTOMERS matter most Professional Relations BUSN 1179 • We RESPECT each other • Getting BETTER every day • Care for COMMUNITY and environment History The President's Choice concept was developed by a talented group of food-inspired people who knew back in the mid-80s that Canadians deserved better quality food choices for their hard-earned dollars. The premise was simple: develop unique or superior products that offered better value to our shoppers. The idea may have been simple, but few could have anticipated how Canadian consumers would come to embrace the President's Choice brand to make it one of Canada's best-known trademarks. And the journey continues literally. On behalf of our many shoppers, "PC Insiders" travel incalculable miles every year investigating the new and the flavourful (its true we have the best jobs in the world!). Of course, not every new product requires exotic travel many of our best products were created in our own test kitchen by PC Chefs and PC product developers. We also get invaluable assistance from our dedicated suppliers from all over the world. Regardless of where our inspiration comes from, the key is to deliver PC products at prices lower than the leading brands. We're best known for our food products but we recognize, and our shoppers seem to agree, that our formula for delivering value works equally well in non-food areas. In fact, Canadians jumped at our alternative to traditional banking and its fresh new approach. Presidents Choice Financial has become a resounding success for over 2 million Canadians already. And, when we introduced our ever-growing line up of PC HOME products, applying our better-quality-for-less-money formula to the items shoppers need around the house every day, both the public and the press heralded its arrival. Our goal for all we do remains to provide our shoppers with meaningful CHOICE. Stay tuned, because we think the future looks even more exciting than the first 20- some years have been. Click on the link below and follow the history of President’s Choice: http://www.loblaw.ca/English/About-Us/history/default.aspx The information provided above is a great example of how an organization can provide outstanding customer service without eating into its profit share. It is also an example of how important it is to keep both the customers and the employees satisfied. Information source: The PC Family. (2014). Retrieved May 20, 2014, from President's Choice website: http://www.presidentschoice.ca/en_CA/community/about-pc.html 2. Answer the following questions in a Microsoft Word document.

1.) Why do you think President’s Choice might have such a loyal customer base? (2 marks) Professional Relations BUSN 1179

2.) Based on what you read above, on their website, and on an Internet search for the company, what do think about their approach to satisfying customer needs? (2 marks)

3.) Is this a company that you would patronize as a customer? (1 mark) Why or why not? (2 marks)

4.) Would you want to work for this company? (1 mark) Why or why not? (2 marks)