Business 101: Competing Against Yourself

They say that having too many customers is a good problem to have, but how do you deal with the extra volume without sacrificing quality in terms of product and service? One way that some companies seem to address this issue is to effectively compete against themselves.

I’ve found that there are several shopping malls where you will find both a Future Shop and a Best Buy. They may be in different areas in the shopping centre, but they are effectively going after the same customers and selling the same products. Since both Future Shop and Best Buy are owned by the same parent company, these two locations are effectively competing with one another.

In like manner, I was down at Robson and Denman in Downtown Vancouver looking for an authentic bowl of Japanese ramen noodles. My intention was to go to the Kintaro Ramen House, but it happened to be closed when I went. Half a block down the street was Motomachi Shokudo, another ramen shop that happened to be opened by the same chef as Kintaro. These two eateries are a little different — Kintaro uses pork fat and Motomachi uses organic chicken — but the concept is similar.

Do either of these scenarios make sense to you? Or would it make more sense to have a larger, single location? Does the false sense of competition increase or decrease overall customer interest?

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