3.Rather than employ its own drivers to pick up and deliver laundry for its customers, Prim relied on the use of third-party delivery services. In what ways do you think this approach could have limited Prim’s growth in other markets?
Answer: Prim was not developing core competencies in the logistics of its operations. At its heart, Prim was a pick up and delivery service. It picked up it’s customers laundry, took the laundry to a laundry service to have washed and folded, and then returned the laundry to the customer. If Prim had developed unique capabilities in performing this taks, it could have extended its pick up and delivery service to other industries. Instead, Prim outsourced this service so it developed no core competencies in this area.
4.San Francisco, the city in which Prim launched, has several innovative laundry services. These services include LaundryLocker, where you drop your clothes in a public locker; Sfwash, a delivery service where you pay by the pound; and Sudzee, which requires special lockable bags. Spend some time studying LaundryLocker (https://laundrylocker.com), Sfwashy (https://sfwash.com), and Sudzee (http://sudzee.com). Select the service that you think has the most potential and explain the rationale for your selection. Compare the service to Prim’s approach.
Answer: Laundry Locker’s customers place their laundry in a locker and the customers is notified by text when the laundry is finished and returned to the locker (within two business days). Swash picks up your laundry (at your home or business) and returns it to the same address. The pick up and delivery times are done within agreed upon windows of time. Sudzee offers two options. It offers home pick up and return, similar to Sfwashy. It also offers a service where customers can place their laundry in a large secure container in a Sudzee bag. Sudzee will notify the customer when the laundry is done. The laundry can be retrieved from the container via a secure four-digit code. Pricing seems to be similar across the companies. Sudzee seems to be the best—capturing the advantages of both Sfwash, which offers a pick up and delivery service, and Laundry Locker, which offers a dropoff and retrieval service as explained. It also beats out Prim, which offered only the pick up and delivery service. |
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