Amazon is buying Whole Foods!!!

audreyh1

audreyh1

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Joined
Jan 18, 2006
Messages
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Location
Rio Grande Valley
Amazon, the e-commerce heavyweight, unveiled plans on Friday to buy the up-market grocer Whole Foods in a $13.7bn deal.

Amazon said it will pay $42 a share for Texas-based Whole Foods in an all-cash deal that includes the group’s debt.

“This partnership presents an opportunity to maximize value for Whole Foods Market’s shareholders, while at the same time extending our mission and bringing the highest quality, experience, convenience and innovation to our customers,” said John Mackey, Whole Foods co-founder and chief executive.
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https://www.ft.com/content/b707b439-bbc5-32e4-b806-4a7fc8d180a2
 
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Wow! This actually makes sense. They needed a bricks and mortar presence for food.

Dang, they are going to take over the world.
 
Oh, great. Now prime shipping will take even longer.;)
 
What will be interesting to watch is to see if they allow products purchased through Amazon's web site to be returned at a local Whole Foods Market rather than having to ship it back to Amazon. That would certainly increase the convenience of buying things from Amazon.

And, I would imagine you will begin to see Kindles and Echo products displayed in all of the stores.
 
I think it shows that even good companies can make bad decisions.

Whole Foods (AKA "Whole Paycheck") is on the skids. The premise they were based on, that people would pay more $$ for "pure" foods, has deflated. Other grocery chains are doing the same, without the large premium. There have been some newspaper stories on this recently.

The grocery business is low margin, has to be high volume, requires special handling, and product expires quickly (some in just hours!).

When a corporation buys a company that is on the skids, they (think) they have a great vision of what they will do to turn it around/merge it with their own, use, etc. In my observations and experiences, many/most of the acquisitions were ill-founded or ill-executed and were a big waste of $.

I think the "winner" today is Whole Foods shareholders, who can dump the stock today and get out!

Recency bias and aura can lead one to think that Amazon can do no wrong...
 
Whole Foods model worked well for them for two decades, and resulted in other stores carrying much better quality food. Good for me.

Sprouts is in merger talks with Albertsons.
 
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Amazon will use whole foods as their order online, swing by and they have your groceries ready to load in your car. Instead of spending 30 min in the grocery store you spend 15 min at work online and 5 min picking up your order.

I should have bought Amazon when I thought it was overpriced at $150 a share :(
 
Telly said:
Other grocery chains are doing the same, without the large premium.
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My local Shop-Rite sells some organic fruits and vegetables.
The prices are just as high as those sold at Whole Foods.
 
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How exciting! I live very close to Whole Foods although I don't shop there.

Perhaps it is wishful thinking, but I would be delighted if Amazon Prime Fresh eventually became available in my area as a result of this deal.
 
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Bezos is an impressive guy. He is willing to stick his neck out and make mistakes in the process of building an amazing business. He is also willing to tell the Wall Street guys that he doesn't give a crap about quarterly or even annual earnings while he's on this path. As his successes grow and his mistakes are pruned from the bush, profits will take care of themselves.

Only time will tell whether this is a good move or not, though IMO odds are that it is. He's buying infrastructure and people that he couldn't hope to duplicate in a reasonable time frame. The brand? Maybe not so much.

Even a turtle can't make progress without sticking his neck out.
 
Should be interesting. Amazon (Bezos) is one shrewd guy...
 
Going to go out on a limb here and predict Amazon will be the first trillion dollar market cap company and that it happens before 2021.

I should buy Amazon on the Beat Boho II contest and just let it ride.
 
Well all's I can say is my Walmart and Kroger stocks are taking a real beating because of this buyout. Maybe it's a buy "more" of them opportunity. :)

Actually I hope Amazon's kicks Walmart in the backside into better customer services. They are the biggest on the block (today) and they sure act like it.
 
Bezos' purchase of a major newspaper looked odd too until one realized it was the Washington Post. "Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel." -Mark Twain
 
I agree it's genius. But Whole Foods customer service has gone down, that's maybe why it's not as popular. We don't go there as much.
 
Fedup said:
I agree it's genius. But Whole Foods customer service has gone down, that's maybe why it's not as popular. We don't go there as much.
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Right. It is going to be interesting to see what happens. Just how much will Whole Foods change?

I can envision more than just pickup too. I see this more as a distribution system to feed into home delivery.
 
Oooh, the two shares of AMZN I bought about 7 yrs ago may really amount to somethin'. :LOL:
 
Whole Foods never opened a store in the Rio Grande Valley. Closest one is 250 miles away. But I do quite well with Costco, HEB, and the occasional visit to Sprouts.
 
Can "Amazon Online Prescriptions" be the next big thing coming??

Nobody does pick 'n ship better IMO.
 
This is not too surprising to me. I honestly think that Amazon (and Alibaba) really want to the be the Google of all things "physical"...if it can be delivered...NOT MATTER what it is...they want in.

As mentioned before, I don't hold much in regards to individual stocks. I did have some AAPL and I sold it off not too long ago. I thought about rolling it into my VWELX but then I though, "Ah, let's do some gambling", so I split the proceeds between Amazon and Alibaba. Was that a smart move? Well, time will tell I suppose. But...it is less than 2% of my NW, so no harm or foul. ;)
 
W2R said:
How exciting! I live very close to Whole Foods although I don't shop there.

Perhaps it is wishful thinking, but I would be delighted if Amazon Prime Fresh eventually became available in my area as a result of this deal.
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Perhaps they are looking for a better model for online ordering/pickup of groceries. In the Seattle area, Safeway delivers. Amazon has always done delivery. The Prime Fresh concept needs work.

Test-driving Amazon’s brand-new, very weird grocery pickup service | The Seattle Times

- Rta
 
Funny how people love bezos (amazon) yet they hate the waltons (walmart.) Bezos has done more to kill brick and mortar stores than walmart could ever imagine. Everyone just keep drinking the amazon kool aid because its convenient for them.
 
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