Amazon Says It Won't Replace Whole Foods Cashiers With Computers... Yet (cnbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon said it has no current plans to automate the jobs of cashiers in Whole Foods stores after it finishes acquiring the grocery chain. It also isn't planning any layoffs, according to a spokesperson. There is some speculation, however, that Amazon may change its plans and use new technology inside of Whole Foods locations. Commenting on Amazon's announcement from earlier today, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner said, "Only one company on earth can buy grocery chain, be rumored to buy enterprise software company & in both cases be lauded for strategic vision."

Comments

Why not?

[grumpy-cowboy]

With a 15$/hour minimum wage, they will probably change their minds.

What's the purpose of this acquistion?

[FilmedInNoir]

Whole Foods is all hippy-dippy Earth loving stuff I thought. What would Amazon want with that? It's like Walmart buying out an Amish quilter and saying they have no plans for a factory. No duh! They can't go high-tech, it would defeat the purpose of why it was successful in the first place.

Re:What's the purpose of this acquistion?

[HornWumpus]

'Whole Foods' knows who the people dumb enough to shop at 'Whole Foods' are!

Think about that for a second. There's only one explanation: Amazon is going into the Cherokee Hair Tampon business.

Re:What's the purpose of this acquistion?

[HornWumpus]

had...until they went to WF.

What matters is the money you keep. Shopping at whole foods is like buying $350 pre distressed bluegenes. Sure some people do it because they don't care about $350, the other 99% are trying desperately to be mistaken for those that don't care about $350.

Re:What's the purpose of this acquistion?

[EvilSS]

Whole Foods is all hippy-dippy Earth loving stuff I thought. What would Amazon want with that? It's like Walmart buying out an Amish quilter and saying they have no plans for a factory. No duh! They can't go high-tech, it would defeat the purpose of why it was successful in the first place.

Brick and Mortar locations with decent brand recognition (and, among their target customers it's a well liked brand) in high-income areas with a lot of cross-over with their existing customer base (You think hippy-dippy upper-middle class buyers don't also use Amazon?) They can also use these locations and their existing back-end to expand their grocery delivery business and get real experience in retail.

Re:Yeah sure they won't

[arth1]

Yes, "stuff that others don't have" like old world coffee is why I go to Whole Foods, Fresh Market and similar stores.

For regular groceries, they are much worse than regular supermarkets, both for price and quality. Staples like bread, milk and produce tends to be truly old compared to bigger stores with faster churn. And their meat and fish departments are staffed with people who have no idea what they're doing, and couldn't butcher a carcass or filet a fish without cutting bones if their life depended on it.
So specialties, and mostly imports, is where it's at.

well in some sates self checkout does not wic /ebt

[Joe_Dragon]

well in some sates self checkout does not take wic / ebt

They'll replace cashiers with Echo Dots

[JoeyRox]

Echos are more productive, complain less, and don't show up to work with tattoos

Re:They'll replace cashiers with Echo Dots

[WrongMonkey]

What's wrong with tattoos? Does your food taste different if the cashier had some ink done?

Re:They'll replace cashiers with Echo Dots

[WrongMonkey]

I'm going to guess that at least half of people who shop at grocery stores aren't actually interested in oogling hot girls. Maybe that's why your not in charge of hiring practices.

part of the attraction of shopping at Whole Foods

[turkeydance]

is being Seen there, just like some people want to be Seen in church. Amazon might mess with that aspect.

Standard Acquisition process:

[netsavior]

This is standard process for any acquisition:

Step 1: Assure all employees of both the acquired and the parent company that their job is safe.
Step 2: Assure the public that it is business as usual.
Step 3: https://hardware.slashdot.org/... all your employees in potentially redundant areas fill out "Skill matrix" or other bullshit evaluations
Step 4: Make a shocking, totally unexpected, totally unpredictable move to lay off redundancies to the point where you can't properly function
Step 5: Bring in inexpensive contractors/scabs to bring the business back up to minimal function as you ring money out of the asset at peak efficiency.

First business,

[SYSS Mouse]

block customer from checking competitors' price online.

I for one welcome our new self-checkout overlords.

[Killall -9 Bash]

Please place the item into the bag.

Please place the item into the bag.

Please place the item into the bag, YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO COMPLY!

Re:Push that drive for $15!

[bluefoxlucid]

You can't eliminate a position to save $15/hr unless that position is useless and the person there is a welfare case. You have to replace the technology with less-expensive technology and reduce labor hours that way.

Let's say the total labor involvement to design, build, maintain, fuel, and operate a machine over its entire lifetime is equivalent to having $9/hr employees provide the replaced business activities. That is to say: the wage time invested, total, across that machine's entire existence, is equivalent to the wages of $9/hr employees producing the same things the machine does. In that case, replacing $15/hr employees with this saves you $6/hr per employee.

If your employees are $5/hr, it costs more to use the machine.

As technology improves over time, eventually you have those $9/hr employees making $11/hr, but the machine only costs $10.25/hr. At that point, it's cheaper but not necessarily strategic to replace the employees.

If you predict the technology will fall in price to $7/hr in the next three years and those machines have a 15-year ROI, you may find it most-profitable to keep your $11/hr employees for a few more years. Then you have $11.70/hr employees (2% per year raise), and a $7/hr machine. Now you start rolling out the machines. You've avoided being locked into a $10.25/hr TCO with only minimal opex.

So...how will they replace Whole Foods customers

[SnarkSide]

I could sometimes stomach Whole Foods when they were their own entity, but I'm not interested in my grocery dollars going into Amazon's pocket. Even more so, I'll go out of my way to frequent local specialty markets. I imagine many Whole Foods shoppers being turned off by Amazon's involvement. If the demographics shift they will not be able to maintain the current standards.

I'm a little surprised investors seem to think this is such a great idea. It will be sad if they ruin a good business that a lot of people value.

Re:Yeah sure they won't

[PopeRatzo]

What kind of insane PE ratio did they pay for 'Whole Paycheck'?

When I saw the headline that Amazon spent $13.4 billion on Whole Foods, I just assumed that they bought a large guacamole, two fruit cups and a dozen eggs.

Re:Yeah sure they won't

[acrimonious howard]

Don't believe mainstream media! A reliable source told me what really happened:

Bezos: Alexa, buy me olives from Whole Foods.
Alexa: Sure, buying all of Whole Foods.
Bezos: Shit.