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Amazon To Complete $13.7B Whole Foods Deal Monday, Promises Lower Prices and Prime Integration (geekwire.com)

Posted by msmash on from the amazonization dept.

Amazon announced today that its $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods will close this Monday, Aug. 28, and revealed how it plans to lower prices and integrate its Prime membership program into the Whole Foods checkout process. From a report: Amazon said that starting Monday, it will lower prices of items at Whole Foods like organic bananas, brown eggs, salmon, ground beef, and more. It also plans to "make Amazon Prime the customer rewards program at Whole Foods Market and continuously lower prices as we invent together," as Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon's consumer business, said in a press release. Amazon will place its Amazon Lockers package pickup machines in some Whole Foods stores. It will also make Whole Foods' private label products available on its website, on AmazonFresh, on Prime Pantry, and Prime Now. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey will stay in his current role, and Whole Foods' HQ will remain in Austin. The grocer will maintain operations under its current brand.

7 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Open a new overpriced grocery chain! by HornWumpus · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Amazon has blown this acquisition. 'Whole Paycheck' was for those people who like to impress each other with how much the overpay (for the same stuff).

    Cutting the price of 'pre distressed blue jeans' lowers sales, duh.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    1. Re:Open a new overpriced grocery chain! by Strider- · · Score: 4, Interesting

      'Whole Paycheck' was for those people who like to impress each other with how much the overpay (for the same stuff).

      Yes and no. While I don't shop at Whole Paycheque on a regular basis, their pricing for staples wasn't that far out of line from the other grocery stores in my area. The big thing for me is that they are a reliable source for less common, high quality ingredients. My most common purchase there is organic whipping cream from one of our local dairies. Their cows are grass fed, and the cream itself is just straight heavy cream, rather than containing the usual stabilizers (Guar gum, carrageenan, locust bean gum) in your typical whipped cream. I'm not chemophobic or any of that crap, it's that it just whips up differently, and in my opinion, better than the commercial stuff. it just takes more skill to get there, and if you fuck up you wind up with butter.

      --
      ...si hoc legere nimium eruditionis habes...
    2. Re:Open a new overpriced grocery chain! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Wholefoods was struggling due to competition from lower-priced rivals selling upscale food. That's the only reason they sold out to amazon in the first place. It would be stupid for Amazon to continue repeating the same mistakes of the previous owners. There just aren't enough people interested in wealth-signaling to sustain a large-scale over-priced grocery business.

  2. I like to buy orgainc and non-GMO by pecosdave · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Costco seems to offer the ability to cover those needs far more economically than Whole Paycheck. The fact they don't even have Whole Paychecks in this city other than in the gay district and a couple of yuppy colonies keeps the temptation to waste my paycheck on items that are rapidly becoming available at the "normal" grocery stores, and not just in the ever expanding hippie isles makes me wonder if it's worth looking at. Even Wal-Mart has organic stuff under their own Great Value label these days.

    Too little too late.

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  3. Great by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Great. Amazon.com now sells grocery items.

    Meanwhile, in Canada, Amazon.ca doesn't even sell their own Amazon Fire tablets.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  4. The beginning of the end... by erp_consultant · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You had better believe that Kroger and the other supermarket chains are quaking in their collective boots over this. Amazon does this all the time. They find business segments that are poorly run - book publishing, TV/Movie/Music, etc. - with poor customer service and they swoop in and take over it.

    Supermarkets are burdened with having to deal with literally hundreds of union locals. They have been slow to embrace technology. Supermarkets operate on extraordinarily thin margins. They were slow to catch on to the organic food trend, thus allowing the growth of Whole Foods and others in the first place.

    Next time you're in a grocery store take notice of how it is laid out. Lots of vertical aisles. Impulse items at the cash registers. Necessities (eggs, milk, bread, etc.) at the very back of the store. Junk food is always between the front of the store and the necessities. Promoted products are at eye level on the shelves, other products at the bottom where you might not see them.

    Every Kroger or Safeway store looks exactly like this. And it has for the past 50 years. This is not exactly an industry of innovation. Amazon, pardon the pun, is going to eat their lunch.

  5. Suppliers by manu0601 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    make Amazon Prime the customer rewards program at Whole Foods Market and continuously lower prices as we invent together

    In other words, if you are a Whole Foods market supplier, you would better purchase a rope to hang yourself right now, because you may not be able to afford that in a few months.