Pulaski

I thought about putting this in the WTF thread ..... Amazon is going to buy Wholefoods.

I read just a week or two ago an article discussing the likelihood of Amazon buying a brick-and-mortar retailer, perhaps one of the troubled department stores such as Sears or JC Penny (which the article totally disconted) or one of the national "dollar" chains, which would give Amazon a great platform for nationwide "deliver to store" service, not to mention warehouses and a large fleet of trucks to expand their own in-house shipping. Wholepaycheck was not mentioned in the article. It might be significant that the Wholefoods deal is a tiny percentage of Amazon's value - less than 3%.

scrubbedexpat099

Not an obvious tie in.

chawkins99

According to this report Amazon stock rose by 2.6% so a free acquisition (nearly).

Pulaski

That's weird too - in most cases when an acquisition is announced, the buyer's stock price goes down.

Nutek

Seems like a reasonable fit to me. Amazon have been trying to get into groceries for quite some time. This might give them the infrastructure to actually do it.

Lion in Winter

They are in groceries aren't they? I order stuff from them all the time, although not the "fresh" stuff.

I do hope it doesn't mean Whole Foods prices though.

Pulaski

But Wholefoods is a niche player with limited footprint, and relatively limited infrastructure. By contrast Kroger has a market cap today of less than twice that of Wholefoods, but with hundreds of stores from coast to coast and in many more cities than Wholefoods.

Nutek

Only in a dozen or so cities I think. Their distribution centers are a limitation.

Their (perceived) customer base look exactly how I would think Amazon want their customers to be. Slightly upmarket and "organic". Whatever that means.

Certainly seems to have rattled share prices in the industry.

Pulaski

More money than sense?

Nutek

In some ways maybe.

Lion in Winter

I use the "prime pantry" which carries things that I need like laundry supplies, cat food, cat litter, and certain shelf/dry goods that the family consumes, and often has options at very good prices. We do most of our shopping at Trader Joe which is good for many things but woefully deficient in others, and this way I can get those other things delivered and avoid the time and expense of driving around to several other shops. I also have a card on that account that gives me 5% back on all purchases.

Nutek

Everything I buy comes from Amazon. Ditto on the card.

Smartyy

I didn't even know this existed.

I'll have to check it out. Could save us some money.

FlaviusAetius

"Organic?" Also not sure, but I'm always concerned when my wife brings home inorganic lettuce, milk and bread. Has that hard, stony, metalic, gritty mouth feel.

petitefrancaise

Very mixed feelings in Austin.. hope they keep the HQ here.