The Supermarket Case Analysis free essay sample

The story is about a supermarket chain with 12 stores all throughout NY, from the chic Manhattan to the cluttered Downtown. But as goes one of the clauses of the Darwinian Theory, the more deprived you are, more the competition, more the crime. So, understandably, the low income areas face a lot of vandalism, pilferage etc. causing a lot of overhead costs for the company. The company has a same-price policy which cannot be breached. So what does the distribution manager do? Simple! He decides to send the low quality and poorest cuts of meat to the stores in this region to maintain the profitability. Here comes the catch. Since the stores are facing losses in the region, the customer’s forced to go with less value for his well earned money. Seems like an ‘ethical dilemma’. Bingo!! It’s time for us, as Group 1, to step in. So, we were now supposed to analyse if the economic rationale of the manager was a justification sufficient enough for his decision to sell inferior goods to some of his clients. We will write a custom essay sample on The Supermarket Case Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The Debate We decided to look at the case Kurosawa style i. . with diverse perspectives and thus came up with the debate format where both the sides were given an equal opportunity to put forward their case in terms of the ethical theories learnt in class and beyond. It’s an ethical evil!!! Hey!! It’s not that big a deal!! LogicEthical Theory usedLogicEthical Theory used The manager’s not only harming the customer’s interests but he’s also putting the company’s long term reputation at stake. Also, the asymmetry in information goes against the society’s norm of equal rights. Theory of Utilitarianism and John Rawls Theory of Fair Justice The company is providing services of a superstore in the area and thus benefiting a lot of people. The quality of the product is after all only a ‘little’ inferior. Theory of Utilitarianism It is also his duty to fulfil his customers’ requirements and provide them with similar quality of products for similar prices. Theory of DeontologyThe manager has the duty of earning profits for his shareholders by cutting down the overhead costs. Theory of Deontology The society believes in the idea of equal rights to every individual and so the manager’s action will be illegal in such a society. Theory of RightsSince the manager is not doing anything illegal, it is not unethical. Also the business of a business is to do business. What’s wrong in that? Theory of Managerial Egoism The manager’s decision makes the lower pecking order worse off by treating the lower income group regions as dumping grounds for inferior quality of goods. This is cheating and thus, a vice. Theory of Affirmative Action and Theory of VirtueThe vandals are from this locality (assumptions) and so the losses should be borne by the locales. Tit for Tat Similar incidents by Calvin Klein and Costco led to huge long term losses to them. Casuists’ TheoryBait and Switch is a common business practice followed worldwide. And the customer would never know. Casuists’ Theory The Consensus Whoa!! Didn’t know there were so many ethics-related viewpoints to a single dilemma. Well, all said and done, it was time to come to a common solution. The group’s solution for the store (with no consulting fee charged!! ) was straight forward – to invest in security measures, with crossed fingers that this actually is effective enough to considerably reduce the crime rate in the region. There are so many long term costs involved if we let the ‘quality differentiation’ strategy. Once this comes with out in media, the company’s image would have seen a define downfall. The core problem is ‘crime rate’ and not ‘overheads’ – so it makes perfect sense to increase the security measures and let the quality remain the same. The security costs will be distributed over a time. Also, being a low income area, the normal overhead costs like rentals and wages are already low giving us scope to invest in some fruitful security measure.