You're not missing anything except the the value of the hype that goes with the deal. The analysts, the fund managers making buy decisions and so on are all in

You're not missing anything except the the value of the hype that goes with the deal. The analysts, the fund managers making buy decisions and so on are all in the Whole Foods demographic, so they love the deal and feel the same way as the author - it's all about the optics. I couldn't agree more with you about Kroger. Whole foods did $15b last year in sales, Kroger did $115b. If they managed to triple the volume of Whole Foods, they would still be a small competitor relative to Kroger.