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Amazon buying Whole Foods -$13.7 Billion

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

Not in our town. We shop for almost all of our food at WF (and the farmers' market), because the Albertson's and Smith's here suck donkey. I especially wouldn't buy fish anywhere else in this desert town. @Jerez nailed it, you just have to watch out for the specialty items, and it's no surprise that I've run into her at the local WF. :wave:

And we get most of our non-food stuff like paper towels, pet food, detergents, etc. at...Amazon Prime. I don't especially like going to Target either.
 

luliski

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The Whole Foods in my town closed. We have a very established food co-op with better prices; three large supermarkets, and two more upscale, small chain markets. Plus a year round farmers' market twice a week. I don't think they had much of a chance here.
 

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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.

Yeah, I never understood super-expensive jarred pasta sauce. It's easy enough to make sauce, and even not-great homemade sauce is better than jarred. (It's kind of like boxed brownie mix, and I swear it takes longer to do the box than to make brownies from scratch.) That's not to say I never buy jarred sauce, but at $4, not $10 plus.
 

graham418

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I thought WF was on the way down.. Sales down , market backlash at high prices , some revelations that the products were not what they were purported to be.
 

fatbob

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While we have Whole Foods in the UK we don't really have WF in the UK : it's a few stores in London in basically upscale or hipster neighbourhoods.

Whenever I've been in one in the US I've found it interesting retail theatre but the eyewatering prices do make me wonder how big the market is. I totally understand price insensitivity when you are more than wealthy enough and the concept of "affordable luxury" or "prioritisation" for the rest of us but I think I'm with Scott43. But that's old WF.

I'd speculate that new WF is about having a credible fresh produce and refrigerated brand to dovetail into Prime Express and make it clear Amazon just isn't all about dry goods anymore. Expect dark WF stores to start popping up on industrial warehouse parks near you.
 
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Not in our town. We shop for almost all of our food at WF (and the farmers' market), because the Albertson's and Smith's here suck donkey. I especially wouldn't buy fish anywhere else in this desert town. @Jerez nailed it, you just have to watch out for the specialty items, and it's no surprise that I've run into her at the local WF. :wave:

And we get most of our non-food stuff like paper towels, pet food, detergents, etc. at...Amazon Prime. I don't especially like going to Target either.
We are extremely fortunate to have so many great options close to our home.
Ironically, the Raleys that's a mile from our house is doing a remodel to be more WF like. They've added a growler station, wine & spirits tasting station, salad bar/deli, and new shelves (lower profile) that enhance the view of the store.
Someone on our Next Door Neighborhood site complained about how our neighborhood store has changed and she'll be looking for another grocery store option. She is outraged!
Phil and I walked in, (still working on the renovation) and thought, "Wow, this is fresh looking. Nice"

Most of our non food stuff is Costco. We rarely step foot into Walmart or Target. No reason, just don't.
 

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We are extremely fortunate to have so many great options close to our home.
Ironically, the Raleys that's a mile from our house is doing a remodel to be more WF like. They've added a growler station, wine & spirits tasting station, salad bar/deli, and new shelves (lower profile) that enhance the view of the store.
Someone on our Next Door Neighborhood site complained about how our neighborhood store has changed and she'll be looking for another grocery store option. She is outraged!
Phil and I walked in, (still working on the renovation) and thought, "Wow, this is fresh looking. Nice"

Most of our non food stuff is Costco. We rarely step foot into Walmart or Target. No reason, just don't.

Yeah, those of you in and near California don't quite know how good you got it ... That's the one thing I miss from living there, produce and flowers. (Ok that's two things, but they are related.)
 
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Yeah, those of you in and near California don't quite know how good you got it ... That's the one thing I miss from living there, produce and flowers. (Ok that's two things, but they are related.)
I forgot how bad avocados can be outside of our region.
 

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No Costco in our smallish town - nearest one is an hour away in the big city. There's a Sam's Club but it's a seriously depressing place (and on the other side of town) so we avoid it.

There's also Sprouts here, sort of a Whole Foods wanna-be, but the fresh food just doesn't seem as good, and fresh food is the most important to us.

California does have great food shopping availability. Oh well, it's only money.
 
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California does have great food shopping availability. Oh well, it's only money.
The good news for me is, I live in Nevada but have a lot of the benefits of being close to California...without the California taxes and issues ;)


I feel sort of hypocritical posting this article, because I'm one of those people who looks on Amazon for things that I have a difficult time finding locally, or if I just don't want to go slogging through stores looking for things, but...
America's Amazon Problem
 

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I feel sort of hypocritical posting this article, because I'm one of those people who looks on Amazon for things that I have a difficult time finding locally, or if I just don't want to go slogging through stores looking for things, but...
America's Amazon Problem

I understand your trepidation, and it's food for thought. But...it's kind of funny to see that article ooze sympathy for WF. In my town, WF came in and put Wild Oats out of business, and Wild Oats had put local Mom and Pop health food stores out of business. REI - who we all love, right? - has put countless locally owned mountain and bike shops out of business. The article states that Walmart and Target stock dropped when the WF acquisition was announced, but those are hardly my idea of neighborhood-friendly businesses. And Costco...

So, it's hard to know what to do about it, but to draw the line in the sand at Amazon acquiring WF seems to be little behind the curve. Inexpensive, easily attainable goods will always be a hard-to-resist draw. Anyone here shop for ski gear online? Yeah, I thought so. :huh:

Support your local farmer's market.
 
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...And the local grocery store isn't the local grocery store.
Raleys is a part of Nob Hill, which is a part of...

My great uncle owned the local grocery store in our little town of 3,500 people.
He and later his son, thrived with customized butchering, fresh products, and a willingness to special order stuff if someone needed it.
Its been a long time since I thought of Spartan, which is the (co-op??) brand he carried.
I wonder what happened to those brands that served small home town grocers with their affordable brands.
 

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