Applicant to Ross Business School
Choose a current event or issue in your community and discuss the business implications. Propose a solution that incorporates business principles or practices. The review panel will look for creativity, drawing connections, and originality. Please limit this response to approximately 500 words.
In [county, state], plans are currently being made to build a Wawa convenience store off of Route 202. For Wawa, the new store in [city] is a shift from its normal locations in more rural areas, including parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Florida. The new location provides Wawa a more extensive customer base, as [city] is a suburban town occupied by the [city] Commons Mall and a sprawling shopping center. While Wawa finds the location an optimal site, the town’s residents have concerns about the store bordering a residential complex. Wawa’s 24-hour schedule, its gas station, and its proximity to a major highway can surely impact the residents, especially due to ongoing traffic. The residents, for this reason, have voted down plans for a new Wawa store.
Although Wawa does want to open a new store in [city], it must give consideration to its business reputation in the region as it proceeds to deal with the community concerns. Hitherto, Wawa’s new opening has not been received well by the residents in the area. To increase its prospects in the new [city] site, Wawa must focus its case on the niche market it can bring to the community and its offers of compromise.
Characterized by a large fresh food service selection, Wawa offers built to order specialty beverages and hoagies, hot sandwiches, and an assortment of soups. For the community, these selections offer a rich integration of choices made at the easiest convenience for those who are returning home along the popular Route 202. These offers, as Wawa can emphasize, are unique for many convenience stores in the area. Neighboring convenience stores, such as 7-eleven and gas station attachments, do not provide such an inclusive offer. At most, the other convenience stores can offer a few options of hot beverages and snacks.
Additionally, for Wawa to maintain its reputation in the region, it must be willing to show compromises with the residents who border the store’s new site. The residents have concerns about their standard of living if the convenience store’s proximity is so close. Wawa, therefore, must address the need for a buffer zone between the store and those in the residential complex. These zones can be created in a variety of ways. An increase in vegetation, especially by planting more trees, can reduce the light and noise pollution to the residents. Another option is to reduce the size of the new Wawa store. By eliminating a building of the store, a greater buffer zone can be created between the residents and the store. Furthermore, instead of having four entrances or exits leading to the highway and stores around it, Wawa should be limited to two roads leading to the highway. This would provide the bordering residents and group home a relief from the constant traffic that would ultimately ensue.