Amazon’s Takeover Of Whole Foods Complete; Mixed Reaction From Shoppers

The store didn’t feel any busier than normal, and without the subtle Amazon logos on dozens of the new orange tags designating new lower prices, you might not realize that Whole Foods has a new owner.

As part of Amazon’s putting its stamp on the grocer, Whole Foods stores displayed promotions for Amazon’s Echo speaker in tongue-in-cheek fashion, with signs reading “Farm Fresh” and “Pick of the Season”.

“We’re willing to sacrifice and pay a little more to become a little healthier”, he said.

But will Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods hurt ALDI and other smaller discount grocery stores across the country as much as Walmart has?

Coleen Knight of Guilderland said she was “pleasantly surprised” by the price cuts at the store on Monday.

Produce at Union Square Whole Foods.

Analysts see Amazon’s entry into the grocery business as an attempt to digitize an exceedingly analog market.

For one, there are retailers like Wal-Mart and Costco Wholesale Corp., which have been the “everyday low price” leaders for years, said Michael Pachter, research analyst at Wedbush Securities.

Whole Foods will also be integrated more closely with Amazon’s retail site, with frozen Whole Catch products being offered for sale on Amazon’s various grocery e-commerce sites. The widely discussed buyout, which ran a cool $14 billion, has several implications for America’s food system, and one of those was price cuts.

“Price was the largest barrier to Whole Foods’ customers”, said Mark Baum, a senior vice president at the Food Marketing Institute, an industry group. Whole Foods, which started in Austin, Texas in 1980, operates 468 stores in North America and the United Kingdom.

Shazneen Gandhi, 41, in Los Angeles said the Amazon-Whole Foods merger is a frequent topic of conversation among her friends and fellow mothers. Meanwhile, Amazon’s distribution centers can also function as Whole Foods distribution centers.

The new pricing strategy seeks to tackle Whole Foods reputation for selling overpriced goods.

Amazon called its immediate price cuts – a Bloomberg article puts some numbers to the price reductions – “a down payment” on its vision for Whole Foods.

Nowak reaffirmed his $1,150 price target for Amazon shares, which is 21.7 percent higher than Friday’s closing price.

Amazon vowed last week to slash prices at the organic grocery chain beginning Monday “on a selection of best-selling grocery staples”, including selections of fruit, vegetables, dairy and meat.

The Post visited a local Whole Foods store on Friday, and again on Monday morning, to compare prices.

Amazon’s announcement that it plans to close the deal Monday comes a day after Whole Foods shareholders approved the deal and the Federal Trade Commission said it would not block the deal.