Posted on 01/19/2018 6:17:46 AM PST by grundle
Whole Foods used to keep a large amount of extra stock in back rooms and freezers so it could restock its shelves as soon as merchandise was sold (which pretty much all supermarkets do). However, according to Business Insider, the chain has recently gotten rid of that policy, and replaced it with a new policy that transfers items directly from delivery trucks to store shelves. This is causing many store shelves to be empty.
This new policy was started prior to the chain’s recent purchase by amazon.
Whole Foods says it adopted this new policy in order to save money.
The fact that it is causing many customers to abandon the chain and switch to a different one does not, for whatever weird reason, seem to be of concern to the chain’s high level executives. Apparently, their only concern is saving money.
Here are some pictures from Whole Foods stores across the country:
A Whole Foods store in Houston.
A Whole Foods store in West Hartford, Connecticut.
A Whole Foods store in Boston.
A Whole Foods store in New York City.
A Whole Foods store in Boston.
A Chicago Whole Foods store.
A Whole Foods store in West Hartford, Connecticut.
A Whole Foods store in San Francisco.
Amazon has zero clue how to run a grocery store
The manufacturing JIT model may not work in a grocery environment...
I will enjoy watching Jeff Bozos run that company into the ground.
Amazon is living on borrowed time. Walmart is gradually taking them out. the Whole Foods buy was a bad business decision. It doesn’t have the market penetration to begin to compete with Walmart. Walmart’s buying power is probably only exceeded by the federal government. Amazon is trying to compete with an organization that’s almost ten time large and making a profit.
You could be right, but this decision wasn’t Amazon’s. From the article:
“This new policy was started prior to the chain’s recent purchase by amazon.”
In Venezuela this would be a bonanza.
They do actually. They’re running it just like Wally. Which is NOT why customers shop at Whole Foods. Wrecking the brand is generally not a good business model.
Why does the San Francisco store have doors protecting the food?
Never mind. Please don’t answer that. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know.
Wow - like a flashback to Soviet “supermarkets”. Perhaps Amazon will start another new policy of endless lines and ration coupons.
Looks like they are being MBA’d to death.
Good, hopefully it will cost Bezos millions.
Yes, the margins are low in grocery, but 'whole paycheck' had a great niche. They seem to be driving customers away. Sprouts is a great place to buy food.
JIT inventory control is clearly not working well for them.
Amazon is living on borrowed time.
Oh please. That is hardly true. Sure they may have to dump Whole Foods, but it is doing much better then Walmart. Walmart is closing stores while Amazon doesn’t have infrastructure which is much better for a company. Your hyperbole is hilarious.
Amazon is buying a brand name and supplier netowrk, not a grocery store. That’s the problem.
We are all going to die
One could concluded that the purchase of Whole Foods by Amazon was not about running the chain ...
Whole Foods stores in Chicago metro suburbs raised their prices to suburbanites in order to subsidize a Whole Foods store opened in Chicago south side, high crime neighborhood to prevent that store going out of business.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.