Assignment #1 – Architectural Aspects in Real Estate

Name : Forest Jieprang (non regular student)Submission date : 01 February 2011Assignment Details : To select a commercial/ public entity and make a comprehensive review on the

success of that entity in attracting people and the comfort of that entity in serving the stakeholders.

The entities selected are : Borma Supermarket and Griya Supermarket in Taman Kopo Indah.Reason of the selection : The existence of both supermarkets in Taman Kopo Indah and how Borma defeat Griya in attracting people to come in is an interesting phenomena to discuss.

Taman Kopo Indah (TKI) is becoming one the largest real estate in Bandung. Now it consists of TKI 1, 2, 3, and 5, and is planning to expand up to TKI 7, covering a substantially huge area up to the planned Toll Road Soreang – Pasir Koja. One key indicator that showing TKI is a big market to shoot is the existence of Fuel Pump Station inside the estate.

Borma and Griya (Griya = Jogja) are the two largest supermarkets in Bandung. They have outlets in almost every corners in Bandung city. In TKI they are competing each other in all aspects.

The followings are some discussions on the competitiveness of Borma over Griya :

1. Location Review

Both are situated in the prime road, however Borma is one step ahead since its location is at the main traffic circle connecting TKI 1, 2, and 3, beside the fuel pump station, and therefore is more eye-catching to the more people. This situation is one of the key successes of Borma in attracting more people to come.

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Borma

Griya

Main Traffic Circle

2. Outer Appearance

The façade of Borma is more expressive than Griya, so that it is more attractive to more people to come. The façade of Griya is too ordinary, no architectural touch, and is easier to forget. Many supermarkets do not yet realize that good architectural facade may mean good business. Borma outer appearance retains more auras than Griya so that it is more attracttive to many people.

3. Key Influencer

Identification of key influencers is very important in a success of business entity. Like Supermarket businesses, they have to know the determiner of which supermarket a family would go. One of the key influencer is the children of a family. Borma takes this concept by providing many children games and playground inside its supermarket. Therefore many families prefer to go to Borma instead of going to Griya, since the parents may leave their children playing while they are doing their buying activities.

The other key influencer is the mother. All women prefer to go to the supermarket that may provide extensive things to buy. Therefore, Borma last year did renovation to enlarge its selling space to double to let more things to display. This renovation makes Borma several steps ahead than Griya.

The other key thing of supermarket’s success is the price, whoever that may offer more competitive prices will be most likely the winner. In this case, both Borma and Griya are doing their job well; they fight everyday to provide the customers with lower prices. Things that may be the indicator for prices are milk and daily needs commodities. Both Borma and Griya provide their customers with lesser price on these things.

4. Service

Service will be the utmost thing to conquer competitors. In this case, both Borma and Griya know this thing well, therefore they train their sales officers to serve the customers with sincere heart and smile.

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Borma

Main Traffic Circle

Fuel Pump Station

The other area of service that may take advantage role in supermarket business is the numbers of payment counters, so that they may reduce the length of queuing line. Borma provides sufficient numbers of payment counters, so that the customers feel secure that they may be served faster. Griya only provide limited counters due to its limited spaces.

5. Food Court or Restaurant

Indonesian typical people are ones who like to eat. Therefore providing places to eat are one of the key competitive advantages that a supermarket may do. Borma know this, therefore when doing its renovation last year they allocated sufficient spaces for food court and restaurant. It becomes a one-stop service supermarket allowing the customers to buy, to play, and to eat. This thing is another key success of Borma than Griya.

6. Parking Lots

Easy to park is becoming one of the key competitive advantages of many shopping malls and supermarkets. Borma provide sufficient spaces for parking lots so that it serves better the customers.

7. Attractive Events

Attractive event is a must-to-do thing for supermarkets if they want to be successful. This thing is already taking into account by both of them; they provide customers with many discount events every year.

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