Information Systems: Hometown Deli Case Study

Case Study: The Hometown Deli- Stage 1 I am proud to now be the sole decision maker and owner of my family’s deli, The Hometown Deli, which has been in my family since 1952. I feel honored and I am so happy that I have been given the chance to better the business and bring it into the 21st century. I need to be careful in doing so since I have never had such responsibilities before. Not only am I now faced with the challenges of learning the ropes of the business, but the new rumor about the Wall Street Deli that is possibly opening up just down the street. It isn’t just a scary thought because I have so much work already to do, but it’s scary in the fact that since we opened our doors in 1952, we have not had one single competitor. It is my job to reassure my employees and loyal customers that The Hometown Deli will sustain the new changes and be better than ever. I need to put my plans and changes into overdrive mode to get them in effect and get the business going before this potential competitor moves into the neighborhood. The first plan of action involves performing a Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of the Deli. Porter’s Five Forces model is a very valuable tool in aiding businesses that are facing tough decisions of entering a new industry or industry segment. The purpose of Porter’s model is to define the overall appeal that the business has to its consumers. Porter’s Five Forces include: Buyer Power, Supplier Power, Threat of Substitute products or services, Threat of new entrants, and Rivalry among existing competitors. The book outlines and defines these five forces very well.
Buyer power is very important to a business because it is the basic determining factor on whether or not your business will strive. Buyer power is the buyer’s ability to affect the price that they will pay for an item or items. In the deli’s case, at this time the buyer power is somewhat hard to determine. This is because at the moment there are no sure competitors in the