Amazon buying Whole Foods -$13.7 Billion

[Tricia]

I don't frequent Whole Foods, mostly because I have so many good options at a better price, but this is huge news.
Amazon is buying Whole Foods for $13.7 Billion Dollars

Will we get Whole Foods packages delivered to our door via Amazon Prime?

 

[KingGrump]

Never a fan of Whole Food. Can't afford to.
I buy tons of stuff via Amazon Prime. Haven't figured out how to utilize Amazon Pantry and Amazon Fresh effectively yet.
Maybe the next step is shop online and free pick up at Whole Food?

That is what I do that with Home Depot currently. Their online selection is much better than what is available locally in store. Click, pay and they will ship it to the local store free for pick up. Saves on shipping charges and reduces the delivery time. It is the last mile that costs most.
Another added benefit is it saves me a ton of time and aggravation wandering aimlessly around the warehouse just to find they are out of stock on the items I wanted. .

 

[scott43]

I mean..Amazon has some cash on hand...sooo..

 

[Tricia]

$13.7 Billion is a heck of a grocery bill.

Whole Foods has a following, for sure, but I've just never warmed up to it. I've met a few people for lunch at WF, including @SkiNurse, and I've gone with friends who shop exclusively at Whole Foods, but I've bought (not including the meals) maybe three things at WF in my shopping experiences.

 

[KingGrump]

$13.7 Billion is a heck of a grocery bill.

Are you saying I should go on a diet?

 

[Monique]

Interesting.

I've recently had cause to remember when I first heard about Amazon - it sold books, only. It had never been profitable. And we all wondered how any business could make money selling things on a website, since obviously not enough people would be willing to risk sharing their payment information online.

The really cool thing, IMO, about Amazon is that they took all that technical infrastructure they built out for their shopping site - and realized, hey, wait a minute. We could monetize this. So they made all their crazy cloud-based technology available for other companies to use, and now almost every new-ish software company uses Amazon's AWS systems. How many companies have that sort of realization and pivot accordingly?

 

[coskigirl]

 

[neonorchid]

- HA, right back at you Wallmart!

"Walmart has purchased Moosejaw for $51 million, a move aimed squarely at besting Amazon"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurah...rt-buys-moosejaw-for-51-million/#10b96bef7924

 

[fatbob]

$30m per store isn't chump change in a business with fallling like for like sales and a net income of less than $100m if I pulled the right article. So one can only assume that there is a wider strategy at play which takes the reach of Whole Foods to a whole new level. One doubts Amazon are that much into being the upscale neighbourhood grocery store of choice.

 

[ScotsSkier]

View attachment 25660

OK, you owe me for a new keyboard since this one is now covered with coffee...

 

[Jerez]

WF prices have actually come down and their produce is competitive with our local chain stores now and their organic poultry is actually cheaper. What makes WF expensive is the array of exotic goodies that mysteriously jump in one's cart when one is not paying attention.

 

[Monique]

- HA, right back at you Wallmart!

"Walmart has purchased Moosejaw for $51 million, a move aimed squarely at besting Amazon"
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurah...rt-buys-moosejaw-for-51-million/#10b96bef7924

Wait, what? Is that a joke? Walmart buying a cute little outdoor store with funny emails is supposed to threaten Amazon?

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I buy specific things at whole foods. I have mixed feelings about Amazon but do use their prime service pretty frequently.

It'll be interesting to see how this whole things shakes out.

 

[coskigirl]

Wait, what? Is that a joke? Walmart buying a cute little outdoor store with funny emails is supposed to threaten Amazon?

Well, Walmart bought Moosejaw earlier this year which was a play to compete with Amazon in the outdoor gear market which Amazon already competes in. And that article specifically talks about how they expected the next heat up between the competitors to be in grocery which we saw today.

 

[SkiNurse]

Never a fan of Whole Food. Can't afford to.
I buy tons of stuff via Amazon Prime. Haven't figured out how to utilize Amazon Pantry and Amazon Fresh effectively yet.
Maybe the next step is shop online and free pick up at Whole Food?

That is what I do that with Home Depot currently. Their online selection is much better than what is available locally in store. Click, pay and they will ship it to the local store free for pick up. Saves on shipping charges and reduces the delivery time. It is the last mile that costs most.
Another added benefit is it saves me a ton of time and aggravation wandering aimlessly around the warehouse just to find they are out of stock on the items I wanted. .

$13.7 Billion is a heck of a grocery bill.

Whole Foods has a following, for sure, but I've just never warmed up to it. I've met a few people for lunch at WF, including @SkiNurse, and I've gone with friends who shop exclusively at Whole Foods, but I've bought (not including the meals) maybe three things at WF in my shopping experiences.

Big fan of Amazon Prime and only go to WF for some specialty items if I can't make it to Tony's Meat Market (which is da bomb meat market here) I much prefer Costco, Target & King Soopers for my normal groceries. Like @KingGrump , I haven't figured out Amazon Pantry, but friends that use it find it very convenient. Amazon also just announced for certain areas of the Denver metro area, they will deliver items for Amazon Prime members within 60 minutes for $8.99 and within 2 hours for free. Unfortunately, my zip code doesn't fall into this delivery zone

 

[Tricia]

View attachment 25660

Hilarious!!!

WF prices have actually come down and their produce is competitive with our local chain stores now and their organic poultry is actually cheaper. What makes WF expensive is the array of exotic goodies that mysteriously jump in one's cart when one is not paying attention.

....and other grocery stores have better health food and organic options than they did back when WF opened.

 

[Jilly]

Never been to Whole Foods... I think there are a few in Canada. I just order something from Amazon and am still waiting almost 2 weeks later.

 

[scott43]

Never been to Whole Foods... I think there are a few in Canada. I just order something from Amazon and am still waiting almost 2 weeks later.

There's one very close to my workplace. My retail appraisal expert wife says "I don't know how they stay in business when they have so little over the belt.." Lots of one or two pick-ups, not many family shops. I mean, I love pasta sauce, but $18 for a jar of it?? Yikes..

 

[Jilly]

I prefer Farm Boy. But it's an hour away. Eastern Ontario thing.....

 

[Tony S]

There's one very close to my workplace. My retail appraisal expert wife says "I don't know how they stay in business when they have so little over the belt.." Lots of one or two pick-ups, not many family shops. I mean, I love pasta sauce, but $18 for a jar of it?? Yikes..

Food snob alert. Get out now while you can.



Lots of good stuff comes in jars (marmalade!). Lots of good stuff costs $18.00 (Rosso di Montalcino!). Pasta sauce is not one of either. Pasta sauce comes from a pan. Sorry. Flame me now.