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Amazon to buy Whole Foods Market

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2298754

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Jun 21, 2010
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...-whole-foods-in-13-7-billion-bet-on-groceries

Amazon.com Inc. will acquire Whole Foods Market Inc. in a $13.7 billion deal, marking the biggest transaction ever for the e-commerce giant as it pushes deeper into groceries.

Amazon will pay $42 a share in cash for the organic-food chain, the companies said on Friday. John Mackey, Whole Foods’ outspoken co-founder and chief executive officer, will continue to run the business.

Amazon’s biggest acquisition to date came in 2014, when it agreed to buy video-game service Twitch Interactive Inc. for $970 million in cash, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Seattle-based company had about $21.5 billion of cash and equivalents at the end of March, the data show.

“Millions of people love Whole Foods Market because they offer the best natural and organic foods, and they make it fun to eat healthy,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement.
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Whose ready to order avocados with Alexa?
 
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Yeah, Amazon just recently added restaurant delivery as well (like Door Dash), looks like they're going all in on all things consumable :)
 
I only go to WholePaycheck to buy certain items. On the surface, this look good if you want stuff delivered to your door, but it could also mean less choice. I remain skeptical, but for now there is still Trader Joe's as alternative, until someone buys them too.
 
Absolutely brilliant! Amazon was rumored at one point to be eyeing Radio Shack (for the space) just to have a nationwide network of shops for returns and point of sale of most popular items. This takes it one step further and helps them in their initiative to grow their grocery business.

I hope Bezos doesn't stay entirely 'hands off' with Whole Foods. I would love to see some Amazon integration with products, returns, and especially Amazon Pantry.

Yeah, I'm excited about this.
 
Whole Foods, eh? Let's see, I could by the exact same tomatoes from Whole Foods at $2.99/lb, from Safeway at $1.99/lb, or the bodega down the street for $0.89/lb.

But then again Whole Foods doesn't sell food, they sell an image. :rolleyes:

So, now Amazon will own a chain of grocery stores. Our nouveaux corporate overlords won't stop until they control it all, eh?
 
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/business/dealbook/amazon-whole-foods.html

Amazon said on Friday that it had agreed to buy the upscale grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.4 billion, as the online retailer looks to conquer new territory in the supermarket aisle.

For Amazon, the deal marks an ambitious push into the mammoth grocery business, an industry that in the United States accounts for around $700 to $800 billion in annual sales. Amazon is also amplifying the competition with Walmart, which has been struggling to play catch-up to the online juggernaut.

For Whole Foods, the deal represents a chance to fend off pressure from activist investors frustrated by a sluggish stock price. Whole Foods last month unveiled a sweeping overhaul of its board, replacing five directors, naming a new chairwoman and bringing in a new chief financial officer. It also laid out plans to improve operations and cut costs.
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mobilehaathi said:
Whole Foods, eh? Let's see, I could by the exact same tomatoes from Whole Foods at $2.99/lb, from Safeway at $1.99/lb, or the bodega down the street for $0.89/lb.

But then again Whole Foods doesn't sell food, they sell an image. :rolleyes:

So, now Amazon will own a chain of grocery stores. Our nouveaux corporate overlords won't stop until they control it all, eh?
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Where I live near Chicago - everyone is in cahoots, so Tomatoes everywhere is the $2.99/lb.... ;)

Some of the stuff I buy is actually cheaper than the big area groceries but without all the junk ingredients...
 
IronWaffle said:
I wouldn't hold my breath. According to this Washington Post* article, a recent Amazon patent is designed to prevent comparison shopping in the stores.

*WaPo is, of course, like Amazon, owned by Jeff Bezos.
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Sounds like a rather ineffective effort. From your link:

But Amazon now has the technology to prevent that type of behavior when customers enter any of its physical stores and log onto the WiFi networks there
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I doubt too many people are running around logging into each store's wifi while out and about.
 
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gkarris said:
Where I live near Chicago - everyone is in cahoots, so Tomatoes everywhere is the $2.99/lb.... ;)

Some of the stuff I buy is actually cheaper than the big area groceries but without all the junk ingredients...
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I believe part of their strategy is to set regionally competitive prices for some items to get people in the door. Fairly common practice across the board for businesses that can afford it.

If I need a decent selection of cheese on short notice, they're my closest option. And I buy my daily use cooking olive oil from them at a reasonable price. But, good grief, I pay 1/3 the price for my vegetables at my local family grocer, and I strongly suspect they are buying from the same suppliers.

Anyway, I'm sure we can all complain up a storm about them, but Amazon buying them is an...interesting move.
 
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MadeTheSwitch said:
Sounds like a rather ineffective effort. From your link:

I doubt too many people are running around logging into each store's wifi while out and about.
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Agreed, but it's an attempt. A few places I eat out do that on their WiFi. They may block a competitor, or some forums, the app store, and probably some social platforms (I don't know for sure). In those cases I swipe up control center, turn off WiFi and move on, then turn it back on to save data.

Best Buy had a policy -- maybe a dozen years ago -- where their employees actively discouraged price-matching when "showrooming" first became possible on earlier mobile devices with web access. That didn't work, of course, and it also turned off a lot of customers. Amazon won't pull it off either. I doubt they'll need to since Whole Foods is a very well-established brand (like Zappos, which Amazon also bought) so they won't need to do much except lightly discourage a few. Won't hurt their core customers. On the other hand, I don't see them lowering prices. Just as folks here pay an "Apple Tax," others are fine with "Whole Food Tax." Even if they want savings, there seems to be a cachet about complaining about their high prices just to signify that you shop there and can afford those high prices.
 
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I wonder if they are still going to support Apple Pay? If they do, will it become available online also? Either way if they do keep or expand it, maybe it will pressure Walmart, Kroger, and or Safeway to start using it too.
 
Excellent news.

IronWaffle said:
I wouldn't hold my breath. According to this Washington Post* article, a recent Amazon patent is designed to prevent comparison shopping in the stores.

*WaPo is, of course, like Amazon, owned by Jeff Bezos.
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Which has nothing to do with what's being asked by the user you quoted. That system is for their stores that sell physical non-edible goods. You can't really price compare much except alcohol these days. Furthermore, it's easy to bypass. Just use your network data, not the store's wifi.

Let's not forget that they may be registering this patent to prevent it from being abused by patent trolls. Which is a problem these days.
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ibookg409 said:
Hopefully this brings costs down. Do I get free home food delivery as an Amazon Prime customer?
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They'll probably integrate it through and through. Prime customers can order, and regular WF'ers can sign up for prime and set up regular orders at the store. Both benefit each other. Whole Foods is the only store where I can find Hodgson Mills, Arrowhead Mills, and Bob's Red Mill for cheap, per unit, anywhere including buying in bulk from either company.
 
I just hope they don't ruin it by getting rid of the variety and filling it up with the same ole generic brands. The only reason I go to Whole Foods occasionally is for interesting ingredients I can't find at regular stores. Produce costs about the same here but there is much more variety and it is often riper. I could care less about the organic fluff I'll buy whichever is cheaper or ripe.

If I want to make Chinese or Indian food. I am SOL at Krogers.

I wonder what will happen with the stores bought by Whole Foods. The one I go to still has its original name but is owned by Whole Foods. I wonder if they will finally have to change the name. It is actually setup quite differently than a Whole Foods inside.
 
grocers like Whole Foods have a consistent quality level. All the tomatoes in the box are the same so home delivery is possible.
 
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maxjohnson2 said:
I only go to WholePaycheck to buy certain items. On the surface, this look good if you want stuff delivered to your door, but it could also mean less choice. I remain skeptical, but for now there is still Trader Joe's as alternative, until someone buys them too.
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Trader Joe's got bought out years ago. They're now owned by the same family that controls Aldi in Germany.
 
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