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Amazon Just Made Shopping at Whole Foods Cheaper (businessinsider.com)
Whole Foods just got less expensive. From a report: On Monday, the day that Amazon's $13.7 billion acquisition of the grocer went through, prices on certain Whole Foods items immediately dropped. On Friday, Business Insider visited a Whole Foods location in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and checked the prices on 15 items (including a few variations on similar items) mentioned by the companies. The total cost of the basket on Friday -- pre-acquisition -- was $97.76. On Monday, we returned to the Gowanus Whole Foods and checked back in on the same items. This time, the total cost of the 15 items was $75.85. That's a nearly 23% drop in the total cost. Whole Trade Banana: 30 cents (Price dropped to $0.49 a pound from $0.79). Lean Ground Beef: $2 (Price dropped to $4.99 a pound from $6.99). Local Grass-Fed 85% Lean Ground Beef: $4 (Price dropped to $6.99 a pound from $10.99). Four-pack of Organic Avocado: $0 (Price stayed at $6.99 for a pack of four). Hass Avocados: $1.01 (Price dropped to $1.49 each from $2.50) for instance.
I understand that Amazon hasn't been profitable for a while. Why would a company with such an ugly statistic slash prices this much? I do not get it!
Given how utterly fucked up your entire premise is, I bet there are a LOT of things you "do not get", mostly related to reality.
Your understanding of Amazon is poor. https://www.recode.net/2017/4/...
Do you Gentoo!?
23% markdown on Whole Foods, they are still more expensive than the competition. They have something like 1% market share for groceries. Even the largest seller of groceries (Wal-Mart) only has 16% market share. We are pretty friggin' far from a monopoly in that sector.
I was just thinking I bought a 6lb pack of 90/10 ground beef at Sams for less than $3.30 a pound, so I fail to see the value in these incredible savings.
Sams meat tends to be artificially lower than what you're really getting. I found that meat from Sams tends to shrink dramatically when you cook it because it is pumped full of water. Some of that $3.30 per pound your paying goes to nothing but water.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I eat them because they're delicious.
However, it's pretty hard to find good ones. Avocados are everywhere. Avocados that are worth eating are harder to find when they're in season, and impossible to find out of season.
Amazon can't put them all out of business, but they can certainly make them all feel some pain.
You say that like it's a bad thing. Amazon is forcing other companies to improve just like Walmart did and others before them. As long as it is to the benefit of people like you and me then bring on the pain.
Granted Wal-Mart and Target don't truly target the same people, and Amazon will be it's own niche, but it can certainly reduce those companies' profitability considerably.
There is a heck of a lot of overlap and any reduction in their profitability is only to the benefit of you and me most likely. Amazon is going to go head to head with Walmart in a big way. The largest threat to Amazon is probably Walmart getting their Internet sales up to Amazon's level. Combined with the store footprint Walmart has that is a potentially existential threat. That's why Amazon is putting warehouses everywhere and starting to get in bricks and mortar retail. Walmart stores are effectively warehouses and Walmart is VERY good at logistics. Amazon is trying to get local before Walmart figures out ecommerce.