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comment by goobster
goobster  ·  2477 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Amazon Says It Will Buy Whole Foods In $13.7 Billion Deal : The Two-Way : NPR

Alternate title: Amazon just got a deal on 431 pieces of property in premium, high-salary areas, with ample parking and established customer bases.

Oh. And some high-end food, and a robust supply chain that can easily compete - ethically - with Walmart's scale. (Which is not an ethical supply chain.)

Buh-bye Walmart.





kleinbl00  ·  2476 days ago  ·  link  ·  

They were trading at 36. They were bought for 42. Amazon paid a $4bln premium for an organization that is actively closing stores and scrapping expansion plans. Whole foods profit is down 50 percent, to $90 million a quarter. Hellofresh is an unprofitable company in an unprofitable segment, but it’s the biggest threat to Amazon Fresh, which is not only unprofitable but also overpriced enough to make Whole Foods look like Grocery Outlet.

If I had razor-thin profit margins, I'd sit this one the fuck out and let the irresistible force and the immovable object of "retail apocalypse" and "impending tech bust" crush my competitors. But if Amazon doesn't spend every spare dime they have, their shareholders will start getting used to non-zero dividends and that will be the fucking end of the company.

Walmart? Walmart is the Retail of Last Resort. Their business model prepays for abandonment of facilities as soon as the tax breaks sundown. And they remain the place that when you have to go there, they will sell you what you need.

This isn't even vaguely about Walmart. This is like that time they bought Daipers.com because it was easier than competing and because they had cash they needed to burn. Do not celebrate this as strategic brilliance; this is further metastisism of Amazon's monopoly - or-bust business model.

"they bought Whole Foods to better compete with Walmart." Listen to yourself.

user-inactivated  ·  2477 days ago  ·  link  ·  
thenewgreen  ·  2477 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Amazon cares about market share and there is a large contingent of the market that cares about ethics. ESPECIALLY when tied to the food they consume. -You seem to be among this cohort. Ethics are something that should be adhered to for the sake of themselves, and not because they wield marketing power, but lets be honest people are putting "GMO FREE" on bottled water cause it's marketable not because it's ethical.

*I have no idea if people are putting GMO free on bottled water, but let's be honest... it sounded plausible... didn't it?

user-inactivated  ·  2477 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Companies like Amazon and Wal-Mart are so massive and so ubiquitous that the loss of income from bleeding heart liberals is of no concern to them unless it affects their public image. If they can bottle Flint Michigan tap water and fool you into thinking it's all natural, GMO free, and get away with it, they will.

ButterflyEffect  ·  2477 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Well, part of it is that we as a country allow companies to do this. There are currently no regulations regarding the term "natural" or "all-natural" for food labels. That said, the FDA is currently requesting comments on this exact topic.