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Amazon Offers Whole Foods Discounts To Prime Members (reuters.com)
Amazon-owned Whole Foods debuted a loyalty program on Wednesday that offers special discounts to Prime members, including 10 percent off hundreds of sale items and rotating weekly specials. "The new loyalty strategy will test whether Amazon's $13.7 billion deal for Whole Foods brings much-feared disruption and an intensified price war to the $800 billion U.S. grocery industry dominated by Walmart and Kroger," reports Reuters. From the report: Those perks are available now in Florida and will roll out to all other stores starting this summer. Amazon previously announced free two-hour delivery from Whole Foods stores for members of Prime, its subscription club with fast shipping and video streaming. The new perks could make Whole Foods cheaper than conventional grocers for about 8 million of its customers who already subscribe to Amazon Prime, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. Prime members scan an app or input their phone numbers at checkout to receive the discounts.
As much as unions suck, and they do, they're still better than not having them. They provide a counter to the power of corporations to abuse their workers.
I'm curious, how exactly did you get this stupid? And I'm not joking or purposely trying to insult you (well, maybe a little), but what kind of bizarro-world information outlets are you frequenting to get information that is the exact upside-down of reality?
I think they may be putting something in all those red pills you take, and it sure ain't the truth.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Not only have I had more than one union job, but I come from a union family. Three generations of union members. My grandfather was in the union working for the railroad and my father was a union machinist. When I was an undergraduate, I worked on South Water Market loading and unloading trucks and had a union pin. Since unions got weaker (starting in the late 80s), workers' wages have been stagnant. During the union era, those wages had healthy growth.
Most of the post-WWII prosperity and middle-class growth in the US was thanks to the labor movement.
You are welcome on my lawn.
and in nearly every market, big and small.
grocery is the lion's share of walmart's business. they ring up a half trillion annually in revenues. over 55% of sales is grocery. walmart sells more *grocery* than amazon does in total sales of *everything*. walmart knows grocery. they know grocery shoppers. they have leverage with manufacturers that would make even bezos wet between the legs.
not a fan of walmart (or amazon, for that matter)... but this is one area amazon cannot compete in, not yet and not for a long time, not even with whole foods. they aren't going to open thousands of 100,000 square foot stores coast-to-coast. they aren't going to ship 100s of billions worth of grocery orders, including perishables (including frozen, refrigerated, produce and deli), every year, either.
about the only thing that might, possibly, put a dent in walmart's stranglehold of the american grocery market would be a partnership between something like costco, target, and a kroger and/or a national grocery wholesaler like supervalu that has their own stores *and* distributes to other chains and independents located in a lot of the same markets (of all sizes) that walmart operates in. even that would be a long-shot.. walmart isn't going to give up any market position willingly.
Or to put it another way - why do the members not do something about it? Are unions in the US not democratic?
Are unions democratic? Well it doesn't matter much if newcomers are voted out of juicy clauses before they get hired. A good example is at GM or Ford where more and more jobs were redefined as "non-core" for new hires, in practice cutting their hourly wage in half for the same kind of work done by "core" workers. This was a decision voted for by union workers as a compromise to protect their existing wages and benefits. Another example is how newcomes were no longer eligible to be part of the job bank at Ford after a layoff, or at best had to accept any position offered anywhere or leave the company, while some people were already on the job bank with the right of refusing three or more position before being kicked out.
Give this unfair treatment, you would assume that people would choose to skip the union. But in many cases, either union membership is mandatory for all eligible employees (because of the work contract negotiated with the employer) or people who choose to not be part of the union have to pay a fat fee to "compensate" the union for their benevolent actions such as negotiating the collective agreement. In other words, total racket.
lucm, indeed.