I.

Executive Summary
Fast-n-Fresh is an online grocery store located in Saint Louiss Central West
End that seeks to serve the Saint Louis area with its online product offerings. The
company is based around the idea of convenience. Fast-n-Fresh will market its
services primarily towards time constrained individuals which includes families,
business professionals, and college students. The company will reach its targeted
demographic primarily with online advertising methods since Fast-n-Fresh is
already an online business. Online advertisements will be conducted through social
media sites, online news websites, and e-mail. Additional marketing will come
through paper advertisements such as doorknockers and magazines/newspapers,
and radio station commercials. With Fast-n-Fresh utilizing its advertising methods
to reach its key demographic, the company can expect sales revenue between
$1,428,00 and $3,704,000.
The online grocery market is a popular trend with several large retailers
(Walmart, Target, and Amazon) already offering online grocery options to their
customers. The younger consumer generation, in particular, has been eager to take
advantage of online grocery shopping. Fast-n-Freshs human resources department
will address five key areas: customer service, IT/IS, inventory, distribution, and the
executive board. Additional personnel will need to be added to Fast-n-Freshs team
as the business grows and develops. Fast-n-Fresh will use a warehouse located in
Saint Louiss Central West End as its base of operations. The warehouse will have
two main sections. The first sections will be where customers pick up their
groceries, and the second will be where Fast-n-Fresh stores its merchandise. In
addition to the two main sections of the warehouse, there will be a portion of the
facility set aside for white-collar office spaces, and a customer service center. Other
facility necessities will include carts, customer parking, RFID scanners, and other
miscellaneous equipment.








































II. Table of Contents



INTRODUCTION. 1

Mission Statement.. 1
Concept and Company. 1
Management Team 1
Product. 2

MARKETING STRATEGY.. 3

Demographics. 4
Trends. 5
Market Penetration. 8
Potential Sales Revenue 9

FINANCING THE BUSINESS 10

Summarized Income Statement for First Year Appendix
Summarized Balance Sheet for First Year.. Appendix
Cash Flow Analysis... Appendix

FACILITIES PLAN 11

HUMAN RESOURCES PLAN.. 14

WORK CITED. 19











III. Introduction

Fast-n-Fresh is a grocery store that will be operated almost entirely online
and located in Saint Louiss Central West End. Potential customers will be able to
access the grocery store through an easy to operate online interface, order their
groceries, and have the option to either pick the groceries up themselves from Fast-
n-Freshs distributing center, or have the groceries delivered to their homes. Fast-n-
Fresh will be built around the idea of convenience. In such a fast paced world, many
people simply do not have the time to visit a traditional grocery store. Fast n Fresh
will facilitate this increasing need. It is the mission of Fast-n-Fresh to be the premier
supplier of groceries to the city of St. Louis by providing a convenient online shopping
experience to the time constrained individuals of this fast paced area.
Fast-n-Fresh will be led by an upper level administration that consists of nine
executives. The organizational chart (located below) clearly delegates the hierarchy of
authority and includes the division of labor for each executive. As a start-up company in
a new market, we decided to have a traditional hierarchy where each subordinate answers
to his or her immediate superior. This provides more time for upper level management to
focus on the completion of long term company goals. Fast-n-Fresh is a fast growing and
perpetual company which will require plenty of room for expansion. The traditional
hierarchy chart has been the most efficient for fast growing companies because it leaves
the span of control narrower than other structures.




The product that Fast-n-Fresh will be selling is traditional grocery store
items. The store will sell over 40,000 private and store brand labels online for our
customers to select from. Customers will use the Internet to access Fast-n-Freshs
website, FastnFresh.com. FastnFresh.com will be easy to navigate and user friendly.
It will include a search bar at the top of the website (pictured below) that customers
can use to search for specific items, and tabs along the side that include major food
groups to streamline the shopping experience (vegetables, fruit, chicken, etc.).
As customers select items, they will be put into a virtual shopping cart (pictured
below) in the top right corner of the website. The shopping cart includes a tallied
dollar amount to show customers how much they have spent.



When customers are ready to check out, they will choose to either pick up the
items from Fast-n-Freshs distributing center, or to have the groceries delivered
CEO
Exectutive
Administratio
n
director/CFO
Directior of
Marketing
Direcior of
Accounting
Director of
Public
Relations
Human
Resources
Facilty
Manager

Sortation
Manager
Shipping/Receivin
g Manager
door to door. If they choose to pick the items up themselves, customers will select a
time range (ex. 5:30pm-6:30pm) to collect their groceries that fits their schedules. If
individuals choose to have their groceries delivered, they will be charged an
additional $10.00 fee, they will enter delivery information on the website (name,
address, phone number, etc.), and select an option from a list of specific delivery
times. Customers can choose to have their groceries delivered between 4:00-
5:00pm, 5:30-6:30pm, or 7:00-8:00pm. It will be the customers responsibility to be
present at their home during the selected delivery time to receive the groceries. If
the customers are not at their homes at the time of delivery, the groceries will be
brought back to the distribution center and delivered at the same time the next day.
Delivery will only be available within the Saint Louis City limits.
Once delivery or pick up has been selected, customers will then pay for their
groceries (and delivery if applicable) using debit, credit, or Paypal. When the
payment has been received, a digital receipt will be given which customers can save
or discard. Customers that are picking up their groceries from Fast-n-Freshs
distributing center will either need to produce the receipt, or some form of
identification to pick up their groceries.

IV. Marketing Strategy
The demographic that Fast-n-Fresh will market its services to is primarily
time-constrained individuals. Time constrained individuals can incorporate
several different subgroups, the first of which is families. Families are busy with
children, household responsibilities, and jobs. The lack of time that many families
face makes this group a key demographic for Fast-n-Freshs marketing strategy. The
City of Saint Louis has 147,076 households to potentially market to (Area Connect,
2013) . Over 52%, or 76,976, of the households in Saint Louis have identified
themselves as a family (Area Connect, 2013). These statistics are optimistic as
they provide Fast-n-Fresh with a large supply of families to successfully implement
its convenience based marketing strategy.







The next demographic that Fast-n-Fresh will target is business professionals.
Business professionals, much like families, have responsibilities with their jobs that
can create time crunches. Consequently, business professionals would be more
likely to respond positively to Fast-n-Freshs campaign, which is aimed at
convenience. To gauge this demographic, Fast-n-Fresh will use statistics that relate
to education in Saint Louis to assess the amount of business professionals that are in
the city. The logic behind this assumption is that with more education, people will
likely have higher paying jobs that require more of their time. Saint Louis has a large
proportion of people with bachelor and graduate or professional degrees. Over 28%
of the population 25 years and over has a bachelors degree or higher (City-Data,
2013). An additional 11.8% of the 28% have gone on and achieved graduate or
professional degrees (City-Data, 2013). This 28% represents a large pool of
potential business professional customers that Fast-n-Fresh can aim its convenience
based marketing strategy at.
Finally, time constrained individuals certainly incorporates college
students. College students have homework, projects, test, etc that can make simple
things like shopping for groceries an inconvenience. Saint Louis has several colleges
with large student bodies for Fast-n-Fresh to aim its convenience based marketing
strategy at. Saint Louis University has a student body population of 16,086 (Forbes,
2013). Additionally, Washington University, located in suburban Saint Louis, has
11,967 undergraduates and graduate students (Washington University , 2013). The
student bodies of these universities provide a large assortment of potential
customers for Fast-n-Fresh to market to.
Online grocery shopping is becoming an increasingly popular trend. In fact,
one third of consumers reported buying grocery items online in the past month
(Integrated Marketing Services, 2011). The younger generation, in particular, is
responding positively to online grocery shopping. Gen Y is just becoming a true
grocery demographic, and its members have a preference and aptitude for digital
technology that make online shopping a natural fit (Integrated Marketing Services,
2011). Some large corporations have already started to adopt an online grocery
strategy to further satisfy customers needs. Large retailers such as Amazon, Wal-
Mart, CVS, and Target have all begun to establish a presence in the online grocery
market. Amazon introduced its online delivery service Amazon Fresh in Seattle in
2011. Similarly, Wal-Mart has been testing Wal-Mart to Go in San Jose since 2011.
Wal-Mart has an advantage over companies like Amazon because of the thousands
of stores that it has located around the country (Integrated Marketing Services,
2011). Wal-Mart is able to use its stores as delivery points to fulfill online grocery
orders.











Online grocery shopping is becoming an increasing popular trend because of
the potential benefits to consumers. These benefits include better prices, free
shipping, same-day service, better product selection, and many more (Integrated
Marketing Services, 2011). Customers are keenly aware of these potential benefits.
Baby boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y all listed better prices or free
shipping as incentives that would attract them to conduct more online grocery
shopping (Integrated Marketing Services, 2011). In order to capitalize on this trend,
companies are encouraged to start the marketing process immediately, develop a
digital presence, have an easy-to-use website interface, and promote themselves
(Integrated Marketing Services, 2011).











Fast-n-Freshs plan for optimal market development is strategic
advertisement. Since our target market is business professionals, college students,
and families, the advertising will be set up to specifically target these individuals
groups. The channels through which this will be achieved are websites, paper, and
radio. Since Fast-n-Fresh is an online grocery store, the key aspects of the
advertisement campaign will be conducted online.
Even the most time-constrained families find time to check their social media
sites. Therefore, Fast-n-Freshs advertisements will be found on social media sites
(Facebook, Twitter, MySpace) of residents living in the city of St. Louis. The second
form of online advisement will be conducted on online news websites. Since it is
important to business professionals to know what is going on in the business world,
the best method to reach this demographic is through advertisements on frequented
business news websites. The third and final form of online advertisement will be via
email, which will be aimed primarily towards college students and business
professionals. Most universities have university sponsored email accounts in which
Fast-n-Fresh could reach college students, and almost all business professionals use
e-mail.
Paper advertisement will also be an important way for Fast-n-Fresh to
develop the online grocery market. Doorknockers, in particular, are a useful paper
advertisement method to share information with college students. Since most
students live on campus or close to it, doorknockers that are strategically placed
around dorms will play a vital role in Fast-n-Freshs paper advertising campaign. In
addition, many students living in dorms will not have transportation to a traditional
grocery store and would appreciate Fast-n-Freshs delivery options. A second paper
advertisement option is magazines and newspapers. This will be limited to St. Louis
publications including, but not limited to: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, FEAST
magazine, St. Louis magazine, and Sauce magazine. These popular publications will
appeal to all of Fast-n-Freshs targeted demographic.
The final form of advertisement will be through radio station ads. Sometimes
the only free time individuals have is the car ride to work, school, and errands.
Therefore, the only chance Fast-n-Fresh has to advertise to its time constrained
demographic might be while they are listening to the radio. It is very crucial to
advertise to even the busiest of potential customers, and this opportunity will
present itself during radio commercial breaks. The radio stations that Fast-n-Freshs
radio advertisements will be played on include 93.7 KSD, 92.3 WIL, 94.7 KSHE, and
103.3 KOLU, and Z107.7. The advertisements will be played during the morning, at
lunch, and at work time rush hour (4-5pm) because these are times that potential
customers will be traveling and most likely to be in a car.
Fast n Fresh can expect a sales revenue between $1,428,000 and $3,704,000.
This number was calculated based on the sales revenue of Wal-Marts online
grocery service and the average sales revenue of all online grocery services in the
United States. Below is a more detailed description of how the sales revenue figures
were reached:
Wal-Mart online sales were $7.7 billion. Groceries accounted for 51% of Wal-
Mart's $258.2 billion in U.S. sales last year. Assume 51% of 7.7 billion will
account for online grocery sales, then divide by the total number or Wal-
Marts stores (2,750 supercenters in the U.S). 3.927 billion (51% of 7.7
billion)/2,750= 1,428,000. (Talley, 2010)
Overall grocery market has $6 billion in revenue. There are 1,620 grocery
store businesses in the United States. By dividing the $6 billion/1,620
businesses = $3,703,703.70 (IBISWorld, 2012)

V. Financing the Business
As a cutting edge grocery distributor in a new market, Fast-n-Fresh has been
financially successful receiving a net profit of $133,119 during its first month of
operation and maintaining a steady profit throughout the year. The company continues to
flex its financial muscles with a calculated gross profit of over $2.2 million by the end of
2013. Fast-n-Fresh is extremely efficient because its inventory turnover is using a just-in-
time method that has sold more than $136,000 worth of groceries with no remaining
inventory in 2013. A summarized income statement of Fast-n-Fresh for the year ended
December 31
st
, 2013 is located in the appendix (Appendix A) of this business plan.
The first month of operation went extremely well for our company. Fast-n-Fresh
embarked on a new and still untouched market in the Saint Louis area. Since there is little
to no competitors is in this market, Fast-n-Fresh is reaping the benefits. The company
generated $150,000 in cash sales along with $150,000 in sales on account. By the months
end our total assets reached $300,000, which has almost doubled our original projected
income. A summarized balance sheet for the month ending January 31
st
, 2013 is located
in the appendix (Appendix B) of this business plan.




VI. Facilities Plan
The Fast-n-Fresh distributing center will require specific equipment in order
to successfully operate. The company has chosen to rent a warehouse in the Central
West End of Saint Louis to be our base of operations. This warehouse will include
two sections. The first section will be where customers pick up their placed grocery
orders. This first section will also be designed with loading stations that all
customers will park at. After parking in the designated area, our Fast-n-Fresh
employees will quickly load the vehicle with the ordered merchandise. This will be
a fast and efficient method for customers to pick up orders.










The second section of our warehouse will be where Fast-n-Fresh's inventory
is stored. This part of the facility will be organized by using shelves to store the
companys products. The items on these shelves will be organized by food type and
then in placed in alphabetical order. Fast-n-Fresh will routinely take inventory of
shelved merchandise to update and ensure that we have a well-stocked store. The
store will use RFID scanners on shelved inventory to track merchandise and base
customer transactions. These scanners will help keep an accurate inventory, and
will also be useful in providing the company with a fast method of making accurate
transactions.
Cameras will also be installed throughout our store for security purposes.
The cameras outside of the store will provide us with more security and may help
prevent theft. The cameras located inside of the warehouse will be monitoring
employees and observing issues from operations. Forklifts will be needed in order
to move large skids of merchandise throughout our store. The skids will cut down
on manual labor costs and will efficiently deliver inventory from one place to the
next. Another section of the warehouse will be a designated storage freezer. This
area will house all of our frozen foods that we keep in stock. In addition to the
storage freezer, a smaller freezer room will be installed to temporarily keep cold
food item orders frozen until the arrival of the customer.
Fast-n-Fresh will also require additional equipment in order to operate
effectively. First, we will provide customers who have not placed an order with
checkout tablets. Customers may use these devices to place an order on site. Fast-
n-Fresh will also require our employees to wear matching bright green uniforms.
The reason for this color is to easily notice workers during the potentially
dangerous loading phase. Fast-n-Fresh will also need order carts to gather items
from a particular order and organize them by customer. The store will also require
the purchase of delivery trucks for our delivery service. These employee-driven
trucks will enable us to expand our services to additional customer bases in the
Saint Louis area.
Some space in the warehouse will be designated for Fast-n-Freshs office of
operations. This area will be a workstation for both the general manager and
company owners. Our office space will be connected directly to our employee break
room. In addition to the management office, we will also have a customer service
and call center room. The call center will be added onto the original building and
will be directly accessible to customers from outside the warehouse.
The rest of Fast-n-Freshs facilities are part of the miscellaneous category. We
will need to construct a restroom for both male and female employees.
Furthermore, a break room will be constructed for our employees to eat, and to take
work breaks. Fast-n-Fresh managers will all be equipped with a device that will be
used to effectively communicate with other managers and employees, and receive
job-related information.
o Warehouse:
o Shelves
o Item Scanners (RFID tags)
o Food Supplies
o Cameras
o Forklifts
o Storage freezer/ Temporary cooler
o Warehouse Utilities (Water, Electricity, ect.)

o Operating Equipment:
o Checkout/ Order Tablets
o Employee Uniforms
o Order Carts
o Delivery Cars
o Office Room/Supplies
o Customer Service Room

Miscellaneous Equipment:
o Employee Restrooms
o Employee Break Room
o Manager Communication Device (Blackberry)



VII. Human Resource Plan

For Fast-n-Fresh to succeed, Human Resources will need to address five main
portions of our business: customer service, IT/IS, inventory, distribution, and the
executive board. These five components will require a large amount of human resources
to maintain operations and provide customers with quick and convenient service.
Customer service will require a call center for any questions by phone, a location
where customers can come in if needed, and management to maintain efficiency. IT/IS
will need technicians and IT professional to maintain the website and help customers
with technical problem. IT/IS will also be involved in developing internal programs for
inventory and distribution. Inventory will require people to unload and stock shipments
from suppliers, clerks to record purchases and schedule shipments from suppliers.
Distribution will require delivery truck drivers and workers to prepare the order for
delivery or pick up. The executive board will be in charge of the major decision-making
and strategy development for the company. These five components are necessary for our
business to achieve its goals.
Suggested Approach
Prioritized Initiatives
1 Customer service
o Provides feedback and information to customers and helps to improve
customer experience. Customer service also collects valuable information
about the target market and how to better the organizations business
strategy.
Goal: To provide a friendly and helpful environment to the
costumer
Strategy:
Hire four customer service representatives to staff a two
person customer service location.
Hire four call center representatives to operate a two person
call center.
Request an automated answering system from IT to process
routine requests.
Hire one customer service manager to oversee the customer
service location and call center.
2 Maintaining IT/IS
o IT/IS is in charge of maintaining the computer systems that collect and
organize information about the customer, suppliers, and employees
involved in the organization.
Goal: To provide customers and employees with up to date
information and technical support.
Strategy:
Hire 3 IT/IS technicians to provide computer maintenance
and technical support to employees and customers
Hire 2 programmers to provide up to date software and
operating systems.
Hire one IT/IS manager to oversee the IT/IS department
3 Maintaining Inventory
o Monitoring the supplies on hand and scheduling deliveries with suppliers
when needed.
Goal: To maintain a constant flow of products into the
store.
Strategy:
Hire four stock clerks to receive shipments from suppliers
and record inventory for accounting and Supply Chain
Management data.
Hire one supply chain management professionals to insure
efficient inventory purchases to keep up with demand and
to improve communication and relationships with suppliers
4 Maintaining Distribution
o Insure that delivery of products arrive punctually and are recorded for
inventory.
Goal: Maintain a constant flow of products out of the store.
Strategy:
Hire four drivers for the three delivery trucks
Hire one delivery manager to schedule deliveries and
operate the storefront


Human Resource Cost Analysis
Department FT employees PT employees Cost of Wages
Customer Service 1 8 $70,000.00
IT/IS 1 5 $100,000.00
Inventory 1 4 $60,000.00
Distribution 0 5 $70,000.00
Executive board 9 0 $108,000.00
Total 12 22 $408,000.00

Customer service, IT/IS, inventory, and distribution must be maintained and
improved for Fast-n-Fresh to succeed. Human Resources will need more funding to keep
up with increasing demand and maintain these four portions of our company. Human
resources will also need to address employee training and a possible benefits program for
tenured employees. Human resources is committed to maintaining a productive and
happy work environment to achieve Fast-n-Freshs goal of quick and convenient
groceries.









Appendix

Appendix A





















Appendix B



































Work Cited

Area Connect. (2013). St. Louis Missouri Population and Demographics Resources.
Retrieved from Area Connect:
http://saintlouis.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm

City-Data. (2013). St. Louis, Missouri. Retrieved from City-Data.com:
http://www.city-data.com/city/St.-Louis-Missouri.html

Forbes. (2013). #381 Saint Louis University. Retrieved from Forbes.com:
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2010/94/best-colleges-10_Saint-Louis-
University_950254.html

Integrated Marketing Services. (2011). The New Aisle: Emerging Trends in Online
Grocery Shopping. Retrieved from Path to Purchase Institute:
http://www.integratedmarketingservices.com/images/pages/2012_new_ais
le_paper.pdf

Washington University . (2013). About WUSTL. Retrieved from Washington
University in Saint Louis: http://wustl.edu/about/facts/students/

Talley, K. (2010, March 31). Wal-mart's grocery sales expand. Retrieved from
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304252704575156043280
712972

IBISWorld. (2012, October). Online grocery sales in the
us:Market research report. Retrieved from
http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/online-grocery-sales.html