Loblaw Companies Ltd$.($Loblaw$)$ operates a number of supermarket chains across two market segments. The discount division focuses on offering the affordable essentials and includes No Frills, Maxi, Real Canadian Superstore, and Extra Foods, while the market division focuses on the customer experience, and includes supermarkets such as Loblaws, Zehrs, Provigo, Fortinos, T&T Supermarket, and others. Loblaws supermarkets compete in the customer experience market segment along with chains such as Sobeys, Longos, Farm Boy, Organic Garage, Jean$-$Coutu, and Whole Foods, as well as big$-$box stores such as Costco and Walmart. There are also quite a few niche grocery stores that service specific areas in Canada. For example, $49$th Parallel Grocery has six locations in British Columbia $(49$th Parallel Grocery $2020).$ Given the number of competitors in this industry, the relative ease for buyers to switch grocery stores, and the limited access that supermarkets have to differentiated suppliers, it would be expected that competition and rivalry would be fairly high among supermarket chains. This suggests that any single supermarket chain would have a limited ability to charge more for products than their competitors. In order to perform better than the competition, supermarkets must work to increase the overall size of the grocery basket of each shopper, and to lock a customer in as a loyal, regular shopper.Given the concentration of large companies $($such as Walmart, Costco, and Loblaw$)$ in the supermarket industry, some food suppliers are becoming concerned that these large buyers are getting too much control over prices. For example, if a supplier wishes to sell their product at Walmart, that supplier must agree to Walmart's terms around pricing, including price rollbacks in future years. Furthermore, it is common practice in the grocery industry to charge suppliers additional fees to place products in certain prime shelf locations in the store or to run product promotions, etc. Food supplier advocacy groups such as the Food and Consumer Products of Canada group, the Dairy Processors Association of Canada, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, and the Canadian Baking Association, among others, have called for the federal government in Canada to step in and impose guidelines around a code of conduct for supermarket chains. Imposing a code of conduct in this industry is intended to reduce the amount of control that the largest companies in this industry hold through sheer buying power, in an effort to ultimately keep prices under control for consumers $($Robertson $2020).$The pandemic certainly led to an increase in cooking and eating at home, which was associated with greater sales volumes from grocery stores. It is uncertain at this point to what extent this trend will continue given the shift to digital purchase and delivery options, or whether consumers will return to previous levels of restaurant use and supermarket purchasing. Aside from large social disruptions like the COVID$-19$ pandemic, the per capita amount of money spent by Canadians in grocery stores is fairly stable, which means that the market for groceries is mature. It is difficult to obtain growth in mature markets. Since the market size is not growing substantially, participants in mature markets can achieve growth most easily by either buying competitors or taking their market share. Both of these options can be challenging and expensive.PESTDL AnalysisPESTDL analysis is a useful method to understand the environmental factors that can influence a firm's strategy and its chances of success given an intended strategy. PESTDL is a systematic method to examine the environmental factors that might affect the firm. PESTDL is an acronym that stands for political, economic, social, technological, demographic, and legal influences. There are several forms of this analysis, all of which stem from PEST $($political$,$ economic, social, technological$).$ PESTDL is used by listing each of these factors and brainstorming around the types of influences that might represent opportunities or threats to the firm from each factor.To perform a PESTDL analysis, start by creating a table such as the one listed below:Table $3\mathrm{.}1$ PESTDL AnalysisPESTDL FactorsOpportunities and ThreatsPolitical factorsOpportunities:Threats:Economic factorsOpportunities:Threats:Social factorsOpportunities:Threats:Technological factorsOpportunities:Threats:Demographic factorsOpportunities:Threats:Legal factorsOpportunities:Threats:This type of analysis is best done in groups, where every member of the group contributes to brainstorming around opportunities and threats for each of the environmental factors. The point of brainstorming is to generate ideas rather than to carefully examine them, so at this point it is important to simply write every idea down on a piece of paper and get every idea into the table. It is not necessary to develop ideas for every factor. For example, if no one can think of possible opportunities or threats from a legal perspective when conducting a PESTDL analysis, then simply leave that factor off the table after completing the brainstorming session. At the end of the brainstorming session, discuss each possible opportunity and threat for each factor in order to arrive at a final list of environmental influences on the intended strategy.Refer to Loblaw's annual report for Case Study Question $3\mathrm{.}1.$Case Study Question $3\mathrm{.}1$Grade Responses $(0)$Using Loblaw's annual report, recent news articles, and any other relevant sources, conduct a PESTDL analysis for Loblaw. What are the primary environmental influences that represent opportunities for the company moving forward, given its current value proposition? What are the primary threats?Students will write their responses here...Case Study Question $3\mathrm{.}2$Grade Responses $(0)$Given what you know about the actions $($or tasks$)$ that Loblaw performs in order to implement its value proposition, should Loblaw consider altering any of these tasks or perform any different tasks in order to capitalize on these opportunities or mitigate these potential threats?Students will write their responses here...