Amazon and Whole Foods

[Rogar]

That was a wild development I'd have never seen coming. For whatever a person might criticize Whole Foods for, nearly every WF I've been in has had pleasant employees and higher quality produce, meats, cheeses, and baked goods than any standard super market. Two Whole Foods and my area have closed in the last year and I've read that their business hasn't been prospering. I don't shop there routinely, but it's a nice treat to occasionally pick up a few special things there. I wonder if some Amazon MBA will determine that high quality foods and decently compensated workers are not the best way to make money in the grocery business.

The grocery shopping options are sure changing in my region. Sprouts, Lucky's, Trader Joes, and natural Grocers all seem to be expanding and I've wondered if the old established supermarket chains will survive.

[JaneV2.0]

I never liked WF's owner/management, pricing, or general atmosphere, and I'm very happy with Amazon's products and service, so this came as welcome news to me.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I liked Whole Foods, but since this merger I may never set foot in one again. It actually is too much monopoly power. Would that anyone actually cared about enforcing anti-trust.

Amazon wants to own the world, WF was trying to dominate the natural foods market it is true (to the determent of natural food shoppers. I prefered when had more choices such Wild Oats, though WF did a good job at least), but the world not so much. Amazon OTOH ...had it's hands in everything.

WF workers never seemed like happy campers at all to me, however probably better working conditions than in an Amazon warehouse from what we hear.

I wonder if some Amazon MBA will determine that high quality foods and decently compensated workers are not the best way to make money in the grocery business.

they probably aren't, although I guess Costco is doing ok (?). Don't shop at Costco as I'm usually shopping for one person kwim. Unless your going after the true rich, going after middle class people with disposable income (like me ) is probably a losing proposition as there are less and less of them and more and more people barely keeping heads above water.

As for pricing WF never was in the looking for low prices food shopper market, it just wasn't. Amazon used to be the cheapest way to buy various things but their prices are increasingly not a very good deal anymore (and certainly no longer the best deal online), so I wouldn't expect them to necessarily improve WF pricing (maybe the Amazon of 10 years ago, but like I said their prices are going up a lot lately with them).

[BikingLady]

Super excited here, Love both. I say I may never have to go to a brick and mortar store again.

[bae]

If I can Amazon Prime groceries from Whole Foods, I'm a fan.

[bae]

I liked Whole Foods, but since this merger I may never set foot in one again. It actually is too much monopoly power. Would that anyone actually cared about enforcing anti-trust.

Does Amazon have a monopoly on the overpriced hipster grocery market? I suspect it would be difficult to convince a judge that Amazon has monopoly market share at this time.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/...north-america/

[ApatheticNoMore]

it's not share of any one market so much as number of markets it's in.

- Online retail of products sold direct from Amazon
- online retail of used and 3rd party products like ebay (with amazon marketplace)
- electronics (to a limited degree with kindle etc. - can't really imagine anyone even using Alexa but ...)
- media (with Amazon t.v. shows plus ownership of the washington post)
- payment market (like paypal with "amazon pay")
- cloud computing (probably the biggest source of Amazon's revenues, so huge)
- software development (but not at the level of microsoft/oracle yet),
- labor market services (to a limited degree with mechanical turk etc.)
- and now groceries.

And I have probably left out A LOT of things. Amazon is an iceberg and mostly we only see the tip with Amazon.com.

[bae]

it's not share of any one market so much as number of markets it's in.

So, not a "monopoly"?

[pinkytoe]

We shopped at WF in its first incarnation as just one tiny hippie health foods store in downtown Austin. Their current downtown headquarters store is the polar opposite - so large, crowded and frenzied that it feels more like a wild gastronomical orgy and makes me want to flee. For greater insight on the Amazon purchase, read the recent Texas Monthly interview with John Mackey. He refers to the hedge fund majority investors as "greedy bastards" so perhaps his feet were held to the fire and he had no other choice but to sell or possibly go private. In reality, he takes no salary as CEO and lives a fairly frugal life for a multi-millionaire. Personally, I find Amazon's reach more than a little troubling. Also, I wouldn't doubt that many of the service jobs connected with Amazon distribution, etc will be robotized in the near future.

[catherine]

If I can Amazon Prime groceries from Whole Foods, I'm a fan.

haha, that's exactly what I said to my DIL when she broke the news to me. Amazon Prime discounts on organic produce--I'm in! Maybe I should be upset because of the whole corporate thing, but Whole Foods was already a big corporation. I don't see a big difference between John MacKey heading up Whole Foods vs Jeff Bezos.

Now, if Amazon tried to take over Whole Earth in Princeton...then I'm protesting!