# Amazon buying Whole Foods



## Jim Johnson

Some interesting Amazon-related news.

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/16/amazon-is-buying-whole-foods-in-a-deal-valued-at-13-point-7-billion.html

Makes me wonder if they'll carry bestsellng Amazon imprint books in the stores.


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## Not any more

Mail order mangoes.


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## Jim Johnson

brkingsolver said:


> Mail order mangoes.


Shoot, if I could get some New Zealand soda and Whittaker's chocolate through Amazon Whole Foods, AND get it through Prime, I think I'd actually squee.


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## notjohn

More likely it would be Prime Pantry (big box for $5.99). When we went skiing last winter, I used a $5 promotion to have an Amazon box waiting in our lodge room, including water in plastic bottles, to my daughter's horror. And Kind bars!



> if they'll carry bestsellng Amazon imprint books in the stores.


Yes, and Kindles!

When we were in high school and motels were taking over the country, my brother proposed that we build a high-rise motel and call it a Hotel. Similarly, it's inevitable that Jeff will recreate bricks & mortar stores, maybe even shopping malls....


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## GoneToWriterSanctum

I don't consent


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## GeneDoucette

I'm looking forward to the media meltdown that's bound to happen as a consequence of this announcement.


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## Not any more

Will they sell our books if we label them "Certified Organic"? A pound of peaches, container of yogurt, fresh tuna, a romance, and two urban fantasies, please. Oh, and throw in that 46" inch TV while you're at it.

Next acquisition: Costco.


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## ♨

This is clearly a shot at eBay who owns just half.com.


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## Anarchist




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## Talbot

I still won't be able to afford shopping there!


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## David Greene

I might be interested in Food Unlimited, for a flat monthly fee. Suppliers could be paid per bite.


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## Anarchist

David Greene said:


> I might be interested in Food Unlimited, for a flat monthly fee. Suppliers could be paid per bite.


Until Amazon releases its Bite Flip feature. At that point, all hell will break loose.


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## Atunah

Jessie G. Talbot said:


> I still won't be able to afford shopping there!


Ha, that is what I was about to say. Prices are super high there.

Maybe now they can bring Amazon Fresh to all cities. Where you pay what, $200 a year and then can get grocery deliveries. Prime now has a few grocery items, but not much.


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## Seneca42

The new antitrust laws will eventually be a problem for Amazon. They state that no one company can control more than 80% of the entire planet.


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## AliceS

If Amazon can get them to drop prices, I'll go back to shopping there. Right now they can't compete with Trader Joes for cheap organic.


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## ilamont

I see this as a reminder that books and ebooks are no longer strategic priorities for Amazon. It already dominates these markets in the U.S. 

Now it's onto growth opportunities in retail, cloud, AI, and streaming services.


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## NeilMosspark

ilamont said:


> I see this as a reminder that books and ebooks are no longer strategic priorities for Amazon. It already dominates these markets in the U.S.
> 
> Now it's onto growth opportunities in retail, cloud, AI, and streaming services.


Agreed, but keeping in mind that these will become more and more siloed inside of the amazon corporation. I could imagine they using the whole foods chain as a tentative delivery method for a small selection (read airport book store) of books, and kindles. The magic here is that if they are siloed, if the whole foods experiment fails, they don't lose their only resource. Just as if their AI experiment fails, they wont lose whole foods. Just a distribution method.

It's smart. They are diversifying.


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## Not any more

A friend with inside information just informed me that this is in preparation for a move into edible books. It gives a whole new flavor to "write to market".


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## AliceS

brkingsolver said:


> A friend with inside information just informed me that this is in preparation for a move into edible books. It gives a whole new flavor to "write to market".


1 star - gave me indigestion. I will not try anything from this author again.


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## Not any more

AliceS said:


> 1 star - gave me indigestion. I will not try anything from this author again.


I'll tell ya, this is a rough audience!


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## Not any more

Take a look at what this announcement did to other food stocks.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-whole-foods-m-a-amazon-com-stocks-idUSKBN1971WX


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## Lummox JR

Syracuse doesn't have a Whole Foods yet. We did get a Trader Joe's a couple years ago, although I haven't been there. (I'd have to steel myself to face all the hipsters. Plus the reports I've had from Trader Joe's are that while they have some unique stuff, they don't offer serious competition to Wegmans.)

Frankly I'd much sooner see one of the new Amazon brick & mortar stores come here, because I'm sure they'd be down with doing events with KDP/CreateSpace authors. Also I love bookstores and want to see one with a great selection again; Barnes & Noble has been disappointing in the last few years, at least the smaller stores we have, and my beloved Borders is no more.


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## ♨

brkingsolver said:


> A friend with inside information just informed me that this is in preparation for a move into edible books. It gives a whole new flavor to "write to market".


Excellent. If authors can choose the ingredients, I can be sure mine includes zolpidem. That way, my books can cure insomnia in two ways!


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## Jim Johnson

brkingsolver said:


> A friend with inside information just informed me that this is in preparation for a move into edible books. It gives a whole new flavor to "write to market".


Certainly will put a new spin on some erotica categories. 



David Greene said:


> I might be interested in Food Unlimited, for a flat monthly fee. Suppliers could be paid per bite.


And Amazon Food Select, where independent farmers can post their products up on Amazon for sale and b*tch discuss every month about how the pay per piece fluctuates!


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## Not any more

Lummox JR said:


> Syracuse doesn't have a Whole Foods yet. We did get a Trader Joe's a couple years ago, although I haven't been there. (I'd have to steel myself to face all the hipsters. Plus the reports I've had from Trader Joe's are that while they have some unique stuff, they don't offer serious competition to Wegmans.)
> 
> Frankly I'd much sooner see one of the new Amazon brick & mortar stores come here, because I'm sure they'd be down with doing events with KDP/CreateSpace authors. Also I love bookstores and want to see one with a great selection again; Barnes & Noble has been disappointing in the last few years, at least the smaller stores we have, and my beloved Borders is no more.


And Wegman's is probably the reason Whole Foods isn't there. Much better than either WF or TJ.


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## Seshenet

I want a chocolate book. And one that tastes like huckleberry pie.


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## gdae23

One of the reader comments to the NYT article on this story:


"Alexa... Put Whole Foods in my shopping cart." --Jeff Bezos Friday morning"



Another reader comment, and one I agree with, was that in NYC, the regular grocery store prices are so high that Whole Foods prices are actually often lower than these.  The price for one type of cereal I buy is $6.59 at the chain grocery store (Gristedes) closest to me. The same item is $3.69 at my neighborhood Whole Foods. (To further compare, it's $2.99 in my neighborhood Trader Joe's, and I bought it for $2.50 in Kroger when visiting a relative in Georgia a few months ago.) 

Of course, you have to compare each item separately, but I have often gotten good prices (for NYC) at Whole Foods, especially when buying their 365 house brand.


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## Atunah

Must really be where one lives. I am lucky I think as grocery prices here in Texas are pretty decent. We have HEB, which ran out Albertsons as they couldn't compete with the prices. But at whole foods, my jaw dropped at some of the prices. Holy moly.  

We finally have a Traders Joe and even though its quite a bit longer drive for me than say HEB, which is just right down the street. I still go to TJ. I did side by side compare now on many many products. Basic kind of stuff, not the delish stuff that TJ piles up in on the tables and between.  

HEB has every product with price in their app. Almost everything so far has been cheaper at TJ. And I much prefer shopping at smaller neighborhood type stores. Its what I am used to from Germany. Some of these super stores feel like a dreadful chore to me when shopping. I do not need a full isle of cereal to pick from. 

So here where I am at, WF is still quite a bit more than comparable stuff at HEB, TJ and Natural Food stores. They opened one of those fairly near hear. I think that is what its called. 

Best thing about Texas of course is that I pay no taxes on groceries.


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## Dolphin

The best thing about TJ's is that their prices are consistently low and they never do sales or coupons. I love that. I even said that once in a cultish training session for Macy's staff, of all places. Didn't really mesh with their brand.



gdae23 said:


> Another reader comment, and one I agree with, was that in NYC, the regular grocery store prices are so high that Whole Foods prices are actually often lower than these. The price for one type of cereal I buy is $6.59 at the chain grocery store (Gristedes) closest to me. The same item is $3.69 at my neighborhood Whole Foods. (To further compare, it's $2.99 in my neighborhood Trader Joe's, and I bought it for $2.50 in Kroger when visiting a relative in Georgia a few months ago.)


I've seen that too in urban stores. There's a place in Seattle, right downtown, that's always going to have a worse selection and higher prices than the glorious Whole Foods near the Amazon campus. Gotta pay the rent, and I'm sure Whole Foods has some great economies of scale.

I'll be curious to see how this one goes. Haven't been this excited about a merger in a long time.


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## Betsy the Quilter




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## readingril

Betsy the Quilter said:


>


HAHA!


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## Sandpiper

Lummox JR said:


> Also I love bookstores and want to see one with a great selection again; Barnes & Noble has been disappointing in the last few years, at least the smaller stores we have, and my beloved Borders is no more.


Agree. Borders and Barnes & Noble stores here were very close together here (Oak Brook, IL). Never understood that. I was in Borders at least once a week. My much-loved Borders is the one that's gone.  Remaining B&N is HUGE -- two floors.  Could always find interesting books in comparatively smaller Borders, but not very often in B&N. I'm not in there often. It's just too big.


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## Lummox JR

Sandpiper said:


> Agree. Borders and Barnes & Noble stores here were very close together here (Oak Brook, IL). Never understood that. I was in Borders at least once a week. My much-loved Borders is the one that's gone.  Remaining B&N is HUGE -- two floors.  Could always find interesting books in comparatively smaller Borders, but not very often in B&N. I'm not in there often. It's just too big.


Both of the local B&Ns here are only one floor. I recently had the chance to visit Columbus, and went to a two-story B&N. I liked the bigger store a lot, because their selection of everything was much, much better than the stores I'm used to. I'm a sucker for computing books, and they had about 6-7 shelf sections of them rather than the 2 I'm used to these days. It was like the good old days. Everything was bigger though; genre fiction was at least twice the size. You could actually find things there. It was wonderful.

Borders used to be that way here; we had a two-story store, and I could spend hours browsing there. I even spent a year working there, and met my wife there. Bookstores are special.


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## Gertie Kindle

Sandpiper said:


> Agree. Borders and Barnes & Noble stores here were very close together here (Oak Brook, IL). Never understood that. I was in Borders at least once a week. My much-loved Borders is the one that's gone.  Remaining B&N is HUGE -- two floors.  Could always find interesting books in comparatively smaller Borders, but not very often in B&N. I'm not in there often. It's just too big.


The Borders and B&N were practically across the street from each other until Borders shut down.

No Wegman's at all in my state and both WF and TJ's are more than an hour away from me. Aldi's, on the other hand, is opening all over the place. I went to the Aldi's just down the street from me and it was so cold, I couldn't shop. I'll try again when I get my parka out of mothballs.

I first went to TJ's when I was in NJ and they had a wonderful selection of frozen veggie blends. I only went there once and then I had to come back to FL. When I had a doc appt about 15 minutes away from the TJ's, their selection was dismal to say the least. I bought a few things, but I wasn't happy with them. At least now I'm not pining for the veggies anymore.

I'll just stick with WalMart.


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## Sandpiper

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> The Borders and B&N were practically across the street from each other until Borders shut down.
> 
> No Wegman's at all in my state and both WF and TJ's are more than an hour away from me. Aldi's, on the other hand, is opening all over the place. I went to the Aldi's just down the street from me and it was so cold, I couldn't shop. I'll try again when I get my parka out of mothballs.
> 
> I first went to TJ's when I was in NJ and they had a wonderful selection of frozen veggie blends. I only went there once and then I had to come back to FL. When I had a doc appt about 15 minutes away from the TJ's, their selection was dismal to say the least. I bought a few things, but I wasn't happy with them. At least now I'm not pining for the veggies anymore.
> 
> I'll just stick with WalMart.


At first Borders and B&N were a block apart. Eventually they both moved across the street. B&N was then (still is) in a big outdoor shopping center. Borders was just outside the shopping center at the opposite end from B&N.

Grocery store wars going on here -- Pete's, Mariano's, Tony's, Caputo's. An Aldi's very close that I've never been in. Should try? A Trader Joe's an easy five-mile drive. (Wish it was closer though.) Often seems parking is a problem around TJ's stores. Not this one -- plenty of parking. There's a Fresh Thyme Farmers Market close to TJ's. Whole Foods isn't too far, but difficult to get to so I don't. And cuz of prices. Probably have to check it out after Amazon does whatever to it.


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## EBCORBIN

So, has anyone noticed a difference in Whole Foods stores since Amazon bought them. It's been around 4 months now since the news first came out. I'm in Ecuador at the moment and can't get to a WF store (although I wish I could).


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