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Thread: Amazon Buys Whole Foods     submit to reddit submit to twitter

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    Amazon Buys Whole Foods

    Didn't see a thread for this, but it's a rather large deal. I've been trying to find out more information on the specifics of it since I just came across it.

    Did they just acquire majority of the shares or did they acquire all of them? Has the deal been finalized?

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    They announced it is going to happen and I don't see a reason for a court to block it, so you can consider it done.

    I doubt it will have any impact on the day to day. Besos is pretty good about leaving his nontech acquisitions alone if it doesn't make sense. Washington Post has dramatically benefitted from being purchased by him in 2013.

    Cynically, I think he is attempting to steal some of whole foods' brand cred for Amazon's grocery service. Whole Foods customers already pay extra for eggplants, so maybe they will pay even more for eggplants that are delivered to their house.

    Grocery delivery also requires very local distribution systems, so we could see whole foods stores doubling as Amazon grocery distribution hubs.

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    I have a nostalgia for a time period I never lived in; when people would go to the grocer with a list, deliver it to the counter, and they'd go into the back and return with everything on the list. Supermarkets are so much more time consuming and ultimately wasteful. Maybe Amazon will go back in that direction.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Byrthnoth View Post
    Grocery delivery also requires very local distribution systems, so we could see whole foods stores doubling as Amazon grocery distribution hubs.
    This is probably the largest factor in the acquisition. It gives Amazon an already in place distribution network to expand their "Prime Pantry" and grocery market.

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    It would depend on the model they go with; grocery backrooms are notoriously small and inadquate for their own operation; operating as a hub for Amazon's network would require a significant financial investment to retrofit.

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    You wouldn't know that though because you've demonstrably never picked up a book nor educated yourself on the matter. Let me guess, overweight housewife?
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    How popular is Amazon Fresh/Pantry anyway? I totally get you are paying for the convenience, but can't bring myself to not just suck it up and go to the store for cheaper.

    I can imagine it's appealing to those who living in colder climates or don't want to take groceries up the city steps. I am trying to convince my mom to get it for the winter months now that she's older, but I don't think they go to her house.

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    I hope this makes whole foods cheaper, I'm not rich and white enough for it currently. But their coffee and meat are dynamite.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Boyiee View Post
    I hope this makes whole foods cheaper, I'm not rich and white enough for it currently. But their coffee and meat are dynamite.
    No local meat market that has quality food at a decent price? Coffee I can't speak on.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ksandra View Post
    How popular is Amazon Fresh/Pantry anyway? I totally get you are paying for the convenience, but can't bring myself to not just suck it up and go to the store for cheaper.
    See, you're probably not the kind of person who shops at Whole Foods then.

    This move targets a very precise segment of the population, people who already pay a premium for abstract improvements in food quality. I don't know what Whole Foods' costs are, but I suspect that they pay very slightly more for food than any other supermarket (sans Aldi) and they pay a bit more for labor.

    Imagine if every product on Amazon Pantry was suddenly anointed by the Whole Foods brand and the pricing was competitive with the store. Now they don't have to pay the labor, which is probably Whole Foods' major inefficiency, and they still get to sell cucumber water to stupid white people for terrible markup (but no markup relative to if they drove to the store.)

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    Heard on the radio that most large grocery store chains took a pretty major hit in the stock market today because of this

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    Yeah, I see this as the beginning of widespread urban adoption of online grocery shopping, at least for the rich. After they figure out the economics and build better infrastructure, they'll probably open it up to the poors too. It's the same top(income)-down strategy that Elon Musk tries to apply to everything.

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    Whole Foods' meat is overpriced trash lol what is this

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    You wouldn't know that though because you've demonstrably never picked up a book nor educated yourself on the matter. Let me guess, overweight housewife?
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    Quote Originally Posted by Byrthnoth View Post
    See, you're probably not the kind of person who shops at Whole Foods then.

    This move targets a very precise segment of the population, people who already pay a premium for abstract improvements in food quality. I don't know what Whole Foods' costs are, but I suspect that they pay very slightly more for food than any other supermarket (sans Aldi) and they pay a bit more for labor.

    Imagine if every product on Amazon Pantry was suddenly anointed by the Whole Foods brand and the pricing was competitive with the store. Now they don't have to pay the labor, which is probably Whole Foods' major inefficiency, and they still get to sell cucumber water to stupid white people for terrible markup (but no markup relative to if they drove to the store.)
    Sorry, I 100% agree with you, but I was talking about currently which would be before they did anything with whole foods.

    Basically I was curious if it was actually giving a substantial profit already, or whether Amazon is trying to seek out other solutions because it isn't doing anything currently.

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    You wouldn't know that though because you've demonstrably never picked up a book nor educated yourself on the matter. Let me guess, overweight housewife?
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    Quote Originally Posted by SathFenrir View Post
    Whole Foods' meat is overpriced trash lol what is this
    .


    International markets usually have the best deals on meat over here. And even then, if I were to pay for more, I'd just go to Costco.

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    I'm not sure. I think services like Fresh Direct are at least competitive with Pantry/Fresh, but they're only offered in a few cities.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Byrthnoth View Post
    I don't know what Whole Foods' costs are,
    It's very hit or miss. Stuff that is already probably local and a lot of fresh fruits and veggies and sometimes dairy I tend to find competitive or better than regular groceries and sometimes even as good as the super shit ones like target or walmart that I wouldn't buy anything that wasn't brand name pre packaged anyways lol. On the specialty type items that have that are common enough you often see them at other stores they are also often cheaper. Like I find Halo top the cheapest there. And some things actually have meaningful improvements worth the small uptick. Also their bakery is pretty top notch. Everything else unless on sale and even sometimes then is ridiculous often because the metrics they use for quality are completely out of sync for an actual consumer see their meat department.

    Quote Originally Posted by SathFenrir View Post
    Whole Foods' meat is overpriced trash lol what is this
    Actually had a long talk with their meat department guys and it turns out it's because they completely ignore any kind of grading or criteria that has anything to do with the quality or taste of the meat. Instead you are paying based on their scale which to dumb it down is how much they baby the animal. Like there are points for literally giving it the option to eat feed or pasture... but only if you force it to eat pasture for most the time. There are points for how kind you are to the animals all through out and sourcing of the feed and such. It's completely pants on the head retarded if the reason you are buying meat is because you want something that tastes good. Shitty if I wanted to be friends with the cow I wouldn't be eating it

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    I meant the cost to Whole Foods, not to you. Like:
    * Amount of money they take in from selling products
    minus
    * Cost of the space/maintenance/etc. (going to be the same as other supermarkets)
    * Cost of labor to load shelves and sell products (I think this is substantially higher at whole foods than competitors)
    * Cost of products that they sell (I think this might be slightly higher at whole foods than competitors)

    So you get tomatoes at Whole Foods and pay an extra 10%. Did Whole Foods pay someone 10% more than the grocery store down the street for the tomatoes you just bought? Did they pay the same and throw out the worst 10% to make the tomatoes look more appealing? Do you just think the tomatoes you've bought are 10% better because whole foods has cultivated a wholesome brand by having happy employees who are paid better than the other supermarkets?

    Amazon could potentially make that process more profitable (or equally profitable) by acquiring the same produce but paying less for their delivery apparatus, which would basically just be bag boys and delivery boys.

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    Come back to me when Amazon buys Trader Joe's

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    Byrth, don't be cynical about Uncle Jeff buying Whole Foods just to push AmazonFresh. That's absolutely part of why he did it. Plus can use them as sub-regional distribution points for delivery services. The crazy part is that Amazon has like 22 billion in cash right now (nothing compared to Apple) so they can just buy Whole Foods cash with no financing. Then they integrate Whole Foods supply lines into Amazon's already existing transportation network that is relying less and less on Fedex and UPS so it lowers Whole Foods costs which allows them to lower prices and expand their customer base. That's pretty sick.

    AWS' entire iteration cycle is scale > reduce costs > scale > reduce costs > scale. It's how they did fullfillment centers and adapted it to cloud services. It's why they have as much cloud capacity as the next 15 competitors combined (plus their willingness to not make a profit for like 15 years - Amazon has only been profitable the last 2 years)

    It's possible Whole Foods total locations double within 5 years and quadruples in 10-12. I'm having trouble seeing if that is more likely or grocery stores go away and food just gets delivered to everyone's house.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Byrthnoth View Post
    I meant the cost to Whole Foods, not to you. Like:
    * Amount of money they take in from selling products
    minus
    * Cost of the space/maintenance/etc. (going to be the same as other supermarkets)
    * Cost of labor to load shelves and sell products (I think this is substantially higher at whole foods than competitors)
    * Cost of products that they sell (I think this might be slightly higher at whole foods than competitors)

    So you get tomatoes at Whole Foods and pay an extra 10%. Did Whole Foods pay someone 10% more than the grocery store down the street for the tomatoes you just bought? Did they pay the same and throw out the worst 10% to make the tomatoes look more appealing? Do you just think the tomatoes you've bought are 10% better because whole foods has cultivated a wholesome brand by having happy employees who are paid better than the other supermarkets?

    Amazon could potentially make that process more profitable (or equally profitable) by acquiring the same produce but paying less for their delivery apparatus, which would basically just be bag boys and delivery boys.
    So had a long post but internet getting worse made bg eat it. Doing long shit is hard on phone so try to keep is shortish.

    I'm not affiliated with WH so I can't say if they do that stuff. But as someone that grocery shops 2-3 times going to 2-3 places each time there is a noticeable difference and I'd say that at the very least they are much more selective at least here compared to the 3 Safeway and target within easy walking distance of me. Like much less likely to find bruised produce they don't leave stuff on the shelves way too long and if some is looking like it they often slash the prices while Safeway still wants me to spend $3 for an avocado that will be inedible tomorrow and might already be today and will replace that batch with the stuff more old stuff they probably had lying around waiting for that batch to rot that said the prices are already competitive so no real need to be better. I end up buying most my veggies there because of that unless I can find some decent looking stuff at Costco.

    For other stuff alot of it is brand and who you getting it from. Given other stores that carry it often also have higher prices I'd say yes they probably do pay more to get that gmo free salt. That's not a joke I've seen it. Now whether the people they got it from paid more to make that product.... doubtful on alot and of they did it was because they did useless shit. Or went retarded like on meat which I'm sure costed them more to get but not for reasons most meat eaters would care about except maybe the pasture raised part but you can get that for cheaper elsewhere

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