Posted on 05/16/2018 12:06:40 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts
Amazon and Whole Foods Market are making a surgical strike in the already brutal grocery price war.
On Wednesday, Whole Foods debuted a much-anticipated loyalty program that offers special discounts to Prime customers, including 10 percent off hundreds of sale items and rotating weekly specials such as $10 per pound off wild-caught halibut steaks.
Those perks are available now in Florida and will roll out to all other stores starting this summer. Amazon previously announced free two-hour delivery from Whole Foods stores for members of Prime, its subscription club with fast shipping and video streaming.
The new loyalty strategy will test whether Amazon's $13.7 billion deal for Whole Foods brings much-feared disruption and an intensified price war to the $800 billion U.S. grocery industry dominated by Walmart and Kroger.
Whole Foods, with 463 U.S. stores and roughly 1 percent share of the fragmented U.S. grocery market, has gained momentum since the Amazon merger last summer, Whole Foods co-founder and Chief Executive John Mackey told Reuters.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Uh, if you have a sale by offering $10 off per pound on halibut your prices are too damn high!
Good point. Always excellent service.
Prices aside, I don’t get the attraction of that place.
LOL, I’ve heard people call it Whole Paycheck too. :D
Before Amazon took over Whole Foods I could count on good avocados. Last time I went they felt firm enough and the next day I opened one up and it was black on the inside. Bezos thinks he is going to make a bunch a money out of Whole Foods? Not with bad avocados he won’t!
I live in a pretty densely populated suburb so I have numerous grocery stores to chose from within a 7 mile radius of my home. This doesn’t include specialty stores like Honey Baked Ham and Produce Junction, super stores and club stores. I spend hours looking through the weekly flyers and scrolling through my digital rewards accounts. It’s almost too much selection.
Giant Food - 3 locations
Acme Market - 3 locations
Weis Market
Shop N Bag - 2 locations
Whole Foods
Trader Joe’s
The Fresh Market
The Fresh Grocer
Aldi - 2 locations
Still amazed that Amazon has a staggering market valuation for a company that turns very little in the way of profit, at least in comparison to its tech rivals. A headline from earlier this week said it all: Apple generated more profit in the March quarter than Amazon has in its entire existence.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-generated-more-profit-one-quarter-amazon-21-194540262.html
Sooner or later, the bubble has to burst.
Whole Foods prices really didn’t go down except for a few items when they announced Amazon took over.
Problem is, truffle oil isn't even made from truffles. It's made from an organic compound called 2,4-Dithiapentane—derived either naturally or from a petroleum base
Right. Bananas. One coffee. Higher fat ground beef.
And they have the employees doing a checklist work area review with several surprise inspections a week.
And even with that they can’t get the shelf price to match the checkout price and when it’s wrong it’s always in the stores favor of being a dollar or two higher than what’s actually marked on the shelf. And these aren’t just expired sales pricing.
Nope they are focused on reviewing employees to see that shelves are stocked with the right number of items and that goods that are about to expire are moved to the front of the shelf.
They’ve already been taken to court several times over class-action lawsuits for having the wrong pricing at the checkout. I guess they don’t consider important since it’s still a problem in their focus is on other shelf matters.
The bubble will never burst. Amazon turns a massive profit. They just don’t believe in leaving money sitting in the bank. They use that money to expand, acquisition and innovation. They average 4 acquisitions a year. This year they’ve been a little quiet, only 1 so far. 11 last year though. Profit they have, they just spend it.
>>>“WTF is truffle oil?”<<<
>>>Not sure, but I think it’s used to lubricate truffles.<<<
If you don’t use “real” Truffle Oil, the Factory Warranty on your Truffle is voided.
So what is the regular price of halibut steaks there?
Check and Check!
ha!
so “Truffle Oil” is another (mis -labelled) Rockefeller Big Oil conspiracy, eh?
ha!
(it really is amazing how many products can be made from oil, actually)
Related to WF clentele, I saw a millennial there pay for a bottle of truffle oil with an EBT card.
______________________
EBT cards should be restricted to canned veggies, basic canned meals, chix, basic dairy and basic carbs, basic fruits and veggies. Very short list. Unfortunately EBT is the Grocer’s welfare.
NOTHING ELSE.
WFM on average is about 15% higher than traditional grocery items on like for like items, at least before Amazon started cutting prices. Certain items are higher than others, though. I can’t say I’ve ever seen carrots for $8/lb, and I worked in the industry at mid mgmt/exec level for more than a decade.
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