3 ms·

Animats asks "what did they buy Whole Foods for?" - Locations: WF is located where the well-off go, - Warehouses: good for use after WF employees quit, and -

Animats asks "what did they buy Whole Foods for?" - Locations: WF is located where the well-off go, - Warehouses: good for use after WF employees quit, and - Real estate: sell unusable locations off. If Amazon can convince customers to pick up packages they may win a bit; but that works only in densely-populated parts of larger cities. Whole Foods was a grocery chain; Walmart is a retailer. But Walmart can't compete in the grocery business (they've been trying awhile and never gained traction). Whole Foods cannot become a retailer like Walmart w/o starting from scratch (except for the real estate, buildings and a bunch of cash registers, refrigerators, meat bins, butcher shops, beer distilleries, escalators, etc). So this move, in the end, is a liquidation sale. It came about b/c Whole Foods simply couldn't gain sufficient grocery market share. All Amazon will get out of this acquisition is the real estate and the buildings. If Bezos was _really_ smart, he would have let Walmart buy up Whole Foods and then watched as the Whole Foods golden goose weighed Walmart down and drained its money. Believe me, WF is a commercial "tar baby". A better metaphor is the grocery market as a "tar pit", now with both Amazon/WF and Walmart trying to stay above the surface while all the other grocers have been living there happily for centuries. Amazon need to be broken up by the Justice Department. Their "creative destruction" is more "destruction" than "creative" in this instance.

dkrich 9y ago
Why do say Walmart can't compete in the grocery business? It seems to me that they've been selling groceries quite successfully for many years. Also, I don't believe Whole Foods owns the land its stores occupy, it's all leased.
- giardini 9y ago
  dkrich: "Also, I don't believe Whole Foods owns the land its stores occupy, it's all leased." If true, one more reason Amazon fu'ed.
woobar 9y ago
> Walmart can't compete in the grocery business (they've been trying awhile and never gained traction). Walmart already has the larges market share in food and beverage business. https://www.statista.com/statistics/240481/food-market-share-of-the-leading-food-retailers-of-north-america/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/240481/food-market-share...
- giardini 9y ago
  Your statistica link is misleading. https://www.thebalance.com/largest-us-based-grocery-chains-3862932 https://www.thebalance.com/largest-us-based-grocery-chains-3... The main problem is that Walmart is not and never was a grocer - it is a retail store that subsidizes its grocery with its retail success. Nor is Amazon a grocer. Buying Whole foods will not make Amazon a successful grocer. My s/o asked "But Whole Foods will turn over all their knowledge to Amazon with the takeover, of course?" to which I replied "Once Mackey leaves, Amazon officers will be given a 4-inch binder by departing Whole Foods staff with 700 white blank pages and a top page that says in big letters "F* You!". Grocers have existed for 100s of years in a very competitive market. Despite all the bravado and technology, neither Walmart nor Amazon know what a quagmire they are getting into by wading into that tar pit. Whole Foods is a poison pill that marks the beginning of the end for Amazon's growth.
hbosch 9y ago
WalMart is very competitive in grocery, it's a national leader with sales far above Whole Foods.

dkrich 9y ago

Why do say Walmart can't compete in the grocery business? It seems to me that they've been selling groceries quite successfully for many years. Also, I don't believe Whole Foods owns the land its stores occupy, it's all leased.

giardini 9y ago
dkrich: "Also, I don't believe Whole Foods owns the land its stores occupy, it's all leased." If true, one more reason Amazon fu'ed.

woobar 9y ago

> Walmart can't compete in the grocery business (they've been trying awhile and never gained traction). Walmart already has the larges market share in food and beverage business. https://www.statista.com/statistics/240481/food-market-share-of-the-leading-food-retailers-of-north-america/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/240481/food-market-share...

giardini 9y ago
Your statistica link is misleading. https://www.thebalance.com/largest-us-based-grocery-chains-3862932 https://www.thebalance.com/largest-us-based-grocery-chains-3... The main problem is that Walmart is not and never was a grocer - it is a retail store that subsidizes its grocery with its retail success. Nor is Amazon a grocer. Buying Whole foods will not make Amazon a successful grocer. My s/o asked "But Whole Foods will turn over all their knowledge to Amazon with the takeover, of course?" to which I replied "Once Mackey leaves, Amazon officers will be given a 4-inch binder by departing Whole Foods staff with 700 white blank pages and a top page that says in big letters "F* You!". Grocers have existed for 100s of years in a very competitive market. Despite all the bravado and technology, neither Walmart nor Amazon know what a quagmire they are getting into by wading into that tar pit. Whole Foods is a poison pill that marks the beginning of the end for Amazon's growth.

hbosch 9y ago

WalMart is very competitive in grocery, it's a national leader with sales far above Whole Foods.