I almost posted this earlier. I have never been to a whole foods store. They put one in near here but it is not on my regular routes. I wonder if they will be delivering.

When Amazon gets their drone delivery up and running, if they can deliver food from Whole Foods to my front porch, I'd be thrilled!

I don't see it working. I think the Whole Foods people love will be compromised. Then again, maybe they will attract another market.

Amazon is a goliath and an employer who tends to have the Walmart mentality when it comes to it's employees . It will swallow Whole Foods up alive and try to find cheaper ways for everything they do...I want to think positive, but suspect quality will drop

It's been dropping a little already in the quest to compete with other stores - many of which are now carrying more and more organic products. They've undergone a major overhaul of their board, ditched their chief financial officer, cut prices. Still a stock slump.

NYT: " With Amazon, Whole Foods gets a deep-pocketed owner with significant
technological expertise and a willingness to invest aggressively in a
quest for dominance."

It will be interesting though to see if changes take place within the markets. Amazon is saying it has no plans to replace cashiers 'with technology'.

The few times I've shopped Whole Foods, I enjoyed the experience - but there is no store within less than two hours in any direction from me so it hasn't been one of my regular haunts.

Amazon already does "Amazon Fresh". I have heard good reviews from customers. Comes packed like other food delivery services like Blue Apron. I think it will do very well.

We regularly go to Whole Foods. They carry unique items (in a Trader Joes sense) that we really like, products that aren't conveniently found elsewhere. Many of its 365 house brand products are terrific and competitively priced. Many fish, meat, and produce items are similarly unique and high quality but a little care needs to be taken to avoid items in these departments and others that can be unjustifiably overpriced. Also, like in Trader Joes, it's refreshing to not have to squint at ingredients labels as is needed in a regular grocery store. Both WF and TJ can be relied on to NOT carry any products with the standard things people want to avoid - products with transfats or high fructose corn syrup immediately come to mind, both stores won't carry products with such ingredients.

Whole Foods hit a brick wall a few years ago, finding its "formula" had some pizzazz and, as a public company, they were having trouble in continuing to please Wall Street and shareholders. Amazon is a very savvy company when it comes to understanding consumer wants, product selection and pricing, and I expect only good things from this acquisition. I wouldn't overstate the delivery/online nature or speculate about synergy in combining the two because grocery stores are essentially brick and mortar operations that rely on people walking in the doors.

While I admire Amazon and its success, I've seen it too many times where the whale swallows the guppy, just to get all competition out of the way.

I like WF seafood grains vitamins etc but their deli stinks! Just b/c you put organic food together with minor regard for flavor doesn't automatically make it epicurious delight.

Whole Foods had some controversy last year when store managers were caught keeping the bonuses that were meant to be distributed to their staff. Another issue was that some products were labelled organic but were not. Personally, I prefer Trader Joe's. There is also Wegman's, but it is a ways away so we only go once or twice a year. Right now, we have farmer's markets, which are the best source of organics.

I agree with everything Elmer said. All I can add is that last fall I found myself needing grocery delivery for a few days. And while I am a regular WFM shopper, I used Amazon instead of Whole Foods for delivery. I was positively amazed by the quality of the produce I received. I have no doubt Bezos will nail this acquisition (mind you I thought WebVan was a brilliant idea whose time had come.)

This piece in today's NYT about the competition between Amazon and Wal-Mart, which just bought Bonobos, was pretty interesting: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/upshot/the-amazon-walmart-showdown-that-explains-the-modern-economy.html?_r=0.

Also this about the market's answer to the question in this post: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/business/whole-foods-walmart-amazon-grocery-stores.html 

Amazon has been wanting a food division for some time, so I guess Whole Foods fit that bill. I'm not entranced with the WF store. I went there looking for some items that are a little less common, but certainly not exotic--hey, it is a big store, right? No Andouille sausage, fresh water chestnuts, juniper berries, etc. I found one thing from the list that was not available elsewhere locally, French green lentils. I'm certainly not paying $7/lb for blood oranges at Whole Foods, when my favorite independent market sells them for 69 cents/lb.

OTOH, my market stopped carrying juniper berries, and I got some wonderfully fresh ones in bulk on Amazon, for a great price. And if Amazon can somehow figure out how to supply me with fresh water chestnuts, I'd be very happy.

This has nothing to do with the topic but how I wish WF would bring back its pho bowls! There are very few I've found that taste fresh, are not oily, not sweet, and have lots of veggies.

To the person who said that Amazon treats it's employees like Walmart, that statement could not be further from the truth. Also for those that are afraid that Amazon will some how ruin Whole Foods. I am not so sure from what I have seen.

My son works for Amazon and I can tell you they treat their employees far better than Walmart. They have great insurance benefits, 401k, they get stock options, paid vacation time, paid sick time and unpaid sick time. His wages are far more than he'd ever make at Walmart. And those benefits start at day 1. He is not full time at the moment but is hoping to move to a full time shift here in the near future. He just wanted to get in the door so he took a part time position. They also have tuition reimbursement and provide training on site. My son has already attended 2 different 40 hour training courses that has allowed him to move up the latter a little bit and he hopes to go even further. He currently works in the warehouse. He started with counting he now after 3 months has been moved to the robotics team which is pretty cool. All the robots are rechargeable and run on as little power as needed to keep energy use down. Since Amazon bought Twitch which is a gaming component my son is hoping to get training to move over to Twitch one day. But so far he actually likes what he does there.

Amazon is very green. You'd be surprised. Their buildings are not heated or air conditioned they use some type of green technology to keep the buildings at a constant temperature. They are super super efficient. My son has commented on the fact that he has never worked in a place that is so efficient.

So from what I have seen I feel confident that Amazon may share Whole Foods Philosophy and may actually have the resources to improve on things and actually provide services that could take Whole Foods to even better heights and I hope that with Amazons buying power maybe we will not see prices jump up to drastically with the change.

Walmart gets a very bad rap for how it treats its employees and it is undeserved. About 3-4 years ago, I happened to be in Bentonville AR at the time of their annual stockholder's meeting. It is NOTHING like a typical stockholder's meeting! They bring in celebrity performers (Elton John was one who was there the year I was in Bentonville) plus every single store manager and a spouse/partner go to it, all expenses paid, and each store has all the employees vote and select two regular employees who, together with spouse/partner/ also go, all expenses paid. We happened to run into several of them while waiting for our crepes at a food cart in Bentonville and we started talking. They ALL said that Walmart is a great employer - great benefits etc. They said that most people are initially hired part-time, but if they show any ability and ambition, they will quickly be promoted to full-time and move up the corporate ladder. One man said he has started as part-time when in college and by the time he graduated, was hired in a management position - he's now a regional store manager and is quite young. He also said that nearly all promotions are from within - this is a morale booster for employees who know they have a shot of moving up.

When one sees what the Walton family has done for Northwest Arkansas and for Bentonville, it is astounding. This part of the state has always been dirt poor, but they have revitalized the town square in Bentonville, their well-paid employees have bought old houses and restored the - the entire town now looks like Mayberry! Then there are all the buildings they have donated to the Univ of Arkansas in Fayetteville, right down the road.

They have kept their headquarters here when most would have moved to NYC. Due to this, they managed to get outstanding non-stop air service from NY to the local airport - far more nonstop flights than into my far larger city! ALL top level managers must spend 3 years working in Bentonville. Many come kicking and screaming but many also like it so much they decide to stay there.

And then there is Alice Walton's amazing Crystal Bridges Art Museum. The building itself is amazing - so beautiful and so perfectly set on a gorgeous piece of property, a short walk on woodland paths from the town square. And the art! OMG! This is a world class collection of American art over the centuries. It's done in chronological order - a Gilbert Stuart and a Peale greet one in the first gallery. Sitting areas, meeting rooms, educational rooms for local school children - it's all there and admission is FREE! If you're ever near there, treat yourself and go see it. There are the usual chain hotels/motels on the highways in and out of Bentonville, but just off the town square, there is a 21c Museum Hotel, part of a very special boutique hotel small chain of hotels. Alice Walton convinced them to build one there. The contemporary art collection in the hotel is amazing and anyone can come in and see it. Food is also outstanding - contemporary southern cooking.

Don't believe all the bad press. Many in the media just don't like that a bunch of self-described hillbillies are now among the world's richest (but do NOT live that way at all!) and have managed to run a highly successful and profitable company. And it had the audacity to stay in Arkansas - flyover country!

Wan-Mart employees cost the US government $6.2B in public assistance, according to American for Tax Fairness. Taxpayers are subsidizing Wal-Mart's profits. That pays for a great deal of largess in Bentonville. Andrew Carnegie's good works are in no danger of being eclipsed by the scions of the Walton family. Here is the piece in Forbes discussing the report

https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/#2a307eda720b

ETA The wrong link posted initially.

I bet that could be said about a lot of the big business companies. McDonalds, Burger King, Walmart so on and so forth whoes main work force are paid minimum wage. I don't think it is only Walmart who have employees on assistance it is just the one that makes the most news.

Where will it stop? What *doesn't* Amazon want to market? Remember the years and years when it turned no profit?

I wonder how Amazon would cope if gasoline and jet fuel prices rose significantly.

(Says the woman who is delighted with her $25 Miss Elaine seersucker robe, marked down from $68 and delivered in two days by Amazon. Same robe was $49, marked down from $68, at Macy's.)

Walmart is a blight on America.

Aprile, I have no doubt about tax payers footing the bill for low wages across the board. BTW, I appreciated hearing about your son's experiences working for Amazon. The NYT piece about working conditions in their warehouses was dismal. I am pleased to hear that was only one side of the story. From my perspective, Amazon is a great employer as well. We have many friends who work for their data analytics/AI branch in Palo Alto called A9.

Wow, thank you so much for sharing all that information, aprile. I really appreciate learning about your son's experience. Your son sounds like a fantastic self-starter, full of initiative. He sounds like a great asset for Amazon- or any employer. I wish him all the best in his new position- whichever one he may choose.

Investors are pretty confident. Market shares dropped significantly in grocery stocks. Amazon's took off.

The one by us is a nice store and the few times I've been in there I've liked their produce and a few other things, but it is expensive. I can get the same quality at our locally owned farmer's market.

A person whose limited education and skills only qualify them for a minimum wage job should be happy to have any job at all. Employers pay at a rate needed to be able to hire enough people to handle whatever tasks they need done. If those with near-minimum wage jobs at Walmart or anywhere else didn't have such jobs, the burden on public assistance would be even higher.

Elmer, are you defending the companies not paying employees enough to survive without assistance?

Employers are businesses, not social welfare organizations. When a community (a state, a city) thinks the prevailing minimum wage in their area provides inadequate means for people whose skills only qualify them for jobs at that level, they can pass a law requiring a higher level.

Otherwise, wage levels are set by the free market conditions that prevail everywhere (absent the presence of a union). If the pay offered for a given job opening is too low, no one will apply. People who have minimum wage jobs would apply for better paying jobs if they could perform the functions such jobs require. Many can't, they're stuck.

Everyone has experienced or heard complaints about about problems in dealing with or limited capabilities of workers at stores like Walmart or fast food places. These businesses get what they pay for (in terms of the capabilities of workers taking minimum wage level jobs) and have found they can get by with such people. Here's how the job market works - compare an average Walmart or McDonalds worker with the average Costco worker. Costco pays more, they get higher quality workers because they can be more picky about who they hire. Those not chosen wind up with lower paying jobs.

The real problem in our society is the vast number of under-trained, under-educated, and sometimes not responsible people in our communities who can't function at more demanding jobs that pay higher wages. They're at the bottom, wherever the bottom is. That's where the problem needs to be solved.

So better that businesses get to put monies into tax havens rather than distributing wealth through better wages/healthcare for employees? Increased wages get recycled in society.

Better working conditions create better employees.