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Did Amazon Really Lower Whole Foods' Prices? (bustle.com)
While Whole Foods "strategically marked down select items like avocados and almond milk, overall prices have dropped very slightly -- about 1 percent -- since Amazon ownership, according to an analysis by research firm Gordon Haskett." An anonymous reader quotes Bustle:
This hardly seems like big savings, and Gordon Haskett noted that since the initial price cuts in August, the cost of some items have been slowly ticking back up. "The price of frozen foods, for example, was 7 percent higher on Sept. 26 than on Aug. 28, when Amazon officially took over," Abha Bhattarai reported for the Post, which is owned by Amazon. "Snack items had risen 5.3 percent in that period, while dairy and yogurt were up 2 percent. (Among categories where prices are lower: Beverages, down about 2.8 percent; bread and bakery, down 6.8 percent; and produce, down 0.5 percent...)"
For shoppers like me who buy mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, it did feel like I was saving money. However, one industry insider said there is a strategy behind how prices are cut. "The whole game is that you want the 100 most recognizable things -- milk, apples, bananas -- to be cheaper," Jan Rogers Kniffen, an industry consultant and former department store executive, told the Post. "If you can do that, you can build a perception that the whole store is competitively priced."
From July through September, Whole Foods brought in $1.3 billion in sales for Amazon.
For shoppers like me who buy mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, it did feel like I was saving money. However, one industry insider said there is a strategy behind how prices are cut. "The whole game is that you want the 100 most recognizable things -- milk, apples, bananas -- to be cheaper," Jan Rogers Kniffen, an industry consultant and former department store executive, told the Post. "If you can do that, you can build a perception that the whole store is competitively priced."
From July through September, Whole Foods brought in $1.3 billion in sales for Amazon.
" overall prices have dropped very slightly -- about 1 percent " so the yes. /article
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
in nyc whole foods is in the most expensive rent parts of the city. no way prices are dropping. at least not on the stuff lazy millennials will buy the most of, like frozen foods.
for me, I go there for the fresh fruits and veggies
everyone does the basket thing. wal mart pioneered it. you figure out what people tend to buy in groups. mark down one or two of the items and raise prices on the rest. it's a 20 year old strategy.
Whole Foods is not where you go to save money.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
"it's a 20 year old strategy."
So, you're a millennial? Cause, grocery has always been low margin with price leaders.
And, Walmart.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Try even further back (1917):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
As soon as you had fixed prices that people could choose themselves, this was standard practice.
Why would anybody shop there in the first place? Sounds scammy to me
I knew what the article summary says going in - they probably only cut the price on a handful of popular things, things I probably wouldn't buy there anyway...
However it did get me back into the store just to look at it, so mission accomplished. They actually have several things there I like quite a lot that are unique to the store, so while I don't do much general shipping there I do go back about once a month to get a few things.
I am a little surprised the convergence with Amazon has not meant more though. Not even a little discount for being Prime for example?? Seems like they have a huge potential to make small changes that would make people even a little more likely to come in.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why would anybody shop there in the first place? Sounds scammy to me
Because in many places, if you want organic this and that and GMO-free this and that, it's the only option because there are no food coops, farmer's markets, or Trader Joe's.
So if you live "in the city" it all depends on if you want organic/GMO-free. If not, you can certainly find a store with healthy food at a cheaper price.
HOWEVER: Where food coops and Trader Joe's DO do exist in close proximity, it's a "status symbol" thing.
Plus, they have a hipster bar with a dozen or so micro brews where you can order hipster pizza by the slice and get a nice buzz while your significant other shops. Sometimes, I'll pay extra for that.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
This blind trust and worship of monopolies these days is unprecedented. While people debate fake bogey men political issues, we are losing competition and ultimately our freedoms to a handle full of monopolies.
Given that they dropped their price on avocados and that some millionaires and politicians keep attributing the poor millennial's inability to afford to buy houses to their consumption of avocado on toast I would say Amazon's price drop is attempting to single-handedly solve* the housing affordability crisis facing our next generation.
* For those of you who don't get the obvious sarcasm, this was obviously sarcastic.
You aren't shopping at whole foods in the first place. So who cares?