Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Amazon Is Cutting Prices at Whole Foods Again (cnn.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon is giving Whole Foods shoppers an early gift for the holidays. The grocer announced Wednesday it's slashing prices again, this time on several "holiday staples," including sweet potatoes, canned pumpkin and turkey. If you're an Amazon Prime member, you'll pay even less for turkey: Whole Foods slashed turkey prices to $1.99 per pound (compared to $2.49 for non-Prime members), or $2.99 per pound for an organic turkey ($3.49 for non-Prime members).

16 of 122 comments (clear)

  1. Is this a story or an advertisement? by SmilingBoy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is this a story or an advertisement?

    1. Re:Is this a story or an advertisement? by TWX · · Score: 2

      I believe the germane term is "press release".

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    2. Re:Is this a story or an advertisement? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Just checked and at Ralphs you can get a turkey for $1.89/lb or an organic turkey for $2.99/lb without paying the Prime tax.

      At my local Walmart, a whole turkey is $0.99 / lb. Organic is not an option.

    3. Re:Is this a story or an advertisement? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      If they know your B&M shopping habits, they can feed you more effective ads online. Just by knowing that you shop at Whole Foods is enough for them to tell that you don't care about price, and you may be willing to buy other overpriced stuff online.

    4. Re:Is this a story or an advertisement? by darthsilun · · Score: 2

      I believe I just paid $0.99/lb at Costco and I saw fresh turkey for $0.99/lb and frozen for $0.89/lb and BJs. If course you have to pay for membership at both, and BJs is only in the northeast.

    5. Re:Is this a story or an advertisement? by Aighearach · · Score: 2

      Advertisement.

  2. Why is this advertisement a story on Slashdot? by Afty0r · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why does it not say "sponsored content" or similar?

  3. Shop-Rite turkey 1.49 this week by Fly+Swatter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sorry, but why is this here? News would be record sales, or finally being bankrupt. As it is they still look overpriced.

  4. Re:There are non-organic Turkeys? by omnichad · · Score: 3, Funny

    Silicone-basted turkeys are also pretty common - at least if you prefer to use a brush for basting.

  5. Re:I refuse to go to Whole Foods after Amazon... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    McDonalds has already had successful trials of self-service kiosks. I don't think we're that far off seeing a third of the register jockeys we see today.

    Hell, if all the lanes that are normally closed were open to self-service I'd use that anyway.

    Rember bank tellers? Yeah.

  6. "Again"... not by igotmybfg · · Score: 4, Informative

    My firm has continuously sampled a local Whole Foods (in Austin, TX) wall to wall, getting about 14.5k distinct UPCs each time. In comparing before and after the merger, we found no significant difference in average price per category (on a same-UPC basis), nor in the magnitude or absolute number of price changes over time. Bottom line: the idea that Amazon has caused Whole Foods to cut their prices is more marketing than reality.

    1. Re:"Again"... not by igotmybfg · · Score: 2

      From the article: > The firm tracked prices on 110 items over five weeks We tracked prices on all the items in the store, which is a 140x greater sample size than Gordon Haskett. Also, the article does not mention what the margin of error is on their sample.

    2. Re:"Again"... not by swb · · Score: 2

      I'm curious if even Amazon has the ability to cut Whole Foods prices significantly without significantly cutting quality.

      I'm not a Whole Foods shopper, but it strikes me that a lot of the products in that store are from small scale producers. Amazon could tell them to cut their prices or get lost, but I'm guessing a lot would just choose not to sell at Whole Foods, and I don't think Amazon would be able to find a ton of replacement products.

      I also don't think that many of the organic-and-natural type product producers have the scale/ability to make a shitty version of their product that would enable them to meet Amazon pricing demands.

      Maybe I'm wrong, but it may just be that the organic-and-natural food segment is just plain expensive and not even Amazon can cut those costs.

    3. Re:"Again"... not by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Informative

      The firm tracked prices on 110 items over five weeks

      So on a basket of 110 prices they found a 1% decrease, but somebody else checked a basket of 14.5k prices and found no decrease at all. This is exactly as expected; when they build a loss-leader strategy, they try to put the discounts on the items people notice the most, and increase the prices of things that people don't think about very much, but tend to buy at the same time that they buy the loss leader. So a basket of only 110 items will always be a basket of "notable" items, and it will always show the price manipulation the way the store wants it to be seen.

  7. Re: still overpriced by Nuklearwanze · · Score: 2

    Coming from a country, where "organic" food has been mainstream for many years, I find those prices unbelievably low. 3 dollar per lb of organic turkey? I guess the standards for "organicness" are rather low, as an organic turkey here (in Austria) costs about 3 times as much.

  8. Re:I refuse to go to Whole Foods after Amazon... by MightyYar · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'd rather support businesses that contribute to my city's economy, not destroy it.

    Here, here! That's why I won't drive an electric car! Think of those poor service station workers. I also dial zero every time I want to place a call and have it manually routed.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.