Amazon buys Whole Foods

[JoNorvelleWalker]

According to The Wall Street Journal amazon recently appointed the executive in charge of Whole Foods to head Prime Now and Fresh as well.  They say it was his decision to kill Fresh in the suburbs.

 

[Anna N]

13 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

According to The Wall Street Journal amazon recently appointed the executive in charge of Whole Foods to head Prime Now and Fresh as well.  They say it was his decision to kill Fresh in the suburbs.

 

Damn. I can’t get fresh food from Amazon but I put in an order for some bread flour yesterday and it arrived on my doorstep around noon today. I can’t get it any faster than that no matter what I do.  And it was so much cheaper than from my grocery service. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 minute ago, Anna N said:

Damn. I can’t get fresh food from Amazon but I put in an order for some bread flour yesterday and it arrived on my doorstep around noon today. I can’t get it any faster than that no matter what I do.  And it was so much cheaper than from my grocery service. 

 

Amazon Prime Now (again according to The WSJ) offers one hour delivery time.

 

[Anna N]

1 minute ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

Amazon Prime Now (again according to The WSJ) offers one hour delivery time.

 

Holy cow. Those of us who don’t drive and don’t live close enough to a store to walk there will be equals with everybody else.    Perhaps even more equal. It’s easy to spend an hour in the store even if you’re only buying one or two things. 

[IndyRob]

I don't like it.  I like competition.  Not monopolies.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I like the possibility of getting food.

 

[Toliver]

"Organic turkeys are going to be a 'whole' lot cheaper this year, thanks to Amazon"

Turns out that Amazon's Prime members are already getting price breaks at Whole Foods:

Quote

Customers will be able to purchase select organic and non-antibiotic turkeys at reduced prices at $3.49 per pound and $2.49 per pound, respectively. However, Prime members will get an even deeper discount at $2.99 per pound for organic and $1.99 per pound for non-antibiotic, “while supplies last,” the company said.

Granted, these aren't the cheap prices we'll see for regular turkeys at our neighborhood grocery stores. But if you're adamant about buying an organic turkey, you'll pay less for it at Whole Foods this year.

 

[Anna N]

On 2017-11-11 at 7:43 PM, IndyRob said:

I don't like it.  I like competition.  Not monopolies.

 Looks as if the competition is heating up. I am so excited.  here  Like @JoNorvelleWalkerI just want to get food.  I’d like the politics etc. to take care of themselves. 

[Toliver]

A little follow-up to this morning's article from CNN:

"Amazon is giving Whole Foods shoppers an early gift for the holidays"

Quote

Whole Foods also announced it is cutting prices on boneless skinless chicken breasts, shrimp, Russet potatoes, bagged salad mixes, broccoli, organic eggs and milk from Organic Valley, Applewood hot dogs, and Chobani and Fage yogurt.

Two things of note: 

1) This is Amazon's second announced wave of price cuts since buying Whole Foods.

2) From the article, here's (click) the Prime member page on Amazon's web site to get the cheaper organic turkey price at Whole Foods.

[Toliver]

I just got an email from Costco stating that they are starting "CostcoGrocery" (no space in the name).

It will have Same-Day Delivery with a $35US minimum order...available in major cities.

They also will have 2-day delivery with no delivery fee if you spend $75 or more.

There's a FAQ on the Costco web site about this new delivery service.

 

Looks like Amazon has some competition!

[kayb]

Hell, and we thought we were cutting-edge when we got Kroger click-list!

[ElsieD]

2 hours ago, Toliver said:

I just got an email from Costco stating that they are starting "CostcoGrocery" (no space in the name).

It will have Same-Day Delivery with a $35US minimum order...available in major cities.

They also will have 2-day delivery with no delivery fee if you spend $75 or more.

There's a FAQ on the Costco web site about this new delivery service.

 

Looks like Amazon has some competition!

 

Speaking as one who hardly ever gets out of Costco with "just what's on the list" CostcoGrocery could save me money.  That is, if I'm still alive when  and if it makes it to Canada.

[gfweb]

On 11/11/2017 at 7:43 PM, IndyRob said:

I don't like it.  I like competition.  Not monopolies.

In SE PA we have a food monopoly...Acme Markets. Not pretty

[Toliver]

Amazon announced two partnerships, one with AllRecipes.com and one with EatLove.
Regarding AllRecipes.com:

"Amazon and Allrecipes team up to take on Blue Apron’s meal kits"

Quote

Today, AmazonFresh and Allrecipes.com announced a new partnership that will allow for meal preparation delivery. Top recipes on the site will now have an embedded option allowing users to purchase the ingredients for same-day delivery through Amazon Fresh.

 

And regarding EatLove:

"Amazon partners with EatLove to deliver personalized meals"

Quote

Once you build up a meal plan of your own, you can quickly get the items you need through AmazonFresh. EatLove isn't just another recipe service: It accounts for dietary restrictions, medical issues and offers up daily reminders to make sure you follow its recommendations. Naturally, the integration is only available in markets where AmazonFresh is available, but it sounds like a genuinely useful addition to EatLove.

I guess the main difference between the two is that EatLove will help you stick with your dietary restrictions, whereas the AllRecipes partnership will send you the all of the ingredients needed to make the recipe of your choice, without any exceptions regarding your dietary restrictions.

[rotuts]

APRN for the last month :

 

 

of note :  4 cents is 1.30 %

 

[IndyRob]

It looks like APRN has had an awful year.

 

We just had a new Kroger open up in town that is offering meal kits.

[BeatriceB]

I'm not surprised Blue Apron is failing -- I keep looking at the menus, and there's never more than two meals on offer that I can/want to eat. (Vegetables, including broccoli and kale, in the cabbage family make me very sick, and they're almost omnipresent. Cheap, I suppose.) FreshDirect also offers meal kits, but at ludicrous prices. They have a faux Hamburger Helper kit for $40 for four servings. Get a pound of hamburger and an actual box of Helper and serve four for $10. 

 

ETA: What I find odd is that these "kits" are just shopping with a huge surcharge. The produce isn't even washed, let alone chopped. I don't really get it.

Edited November 18, 2017 by BeatriceB (log)

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I had to contact amazon tonight about a broken piece of culinary apparatus.  The representative told me they were doing a system upgrade but she would call me back in two hours.  Well it was well more than two hours but she faithfully called me back.  When she asked if there was anything else she could help me with I explained I was an old woman without a vehicle who depended on amazon fresh and I asked her to pass my feedback to the executive that discontinued it.

 

She said she would pass my comments to her supervisor.  She also said I could keep the damaged strainer.  (Though I'm still wondering who in their right mind would pack and ship a mesh strainer in a paper envelope?)

 

My son's family uses Blue Apron.  Who am I to judge?

 

[rotuts]

APRN   is simply a new sort of business that's interesting to  follow

 

neither a good one nor a bad.

 

Im only aware of it due to its massive advertising 

 

delivery of a meal you put together

 

somehow

 

is for sure a growth industry 

 

in areas where there is interest and can be afforded.

 

its just the beginning and there is a lot of sorting out to do.

 

ARPN 's model seems to be one that is failing.

 

I don't even think Amazon is interested in purchasing it.

 

Amazon will muscle its way into this market via WF's

Edited November 18, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[Toliver]

Wow. 
So it turns out that the United States Postal Service helped kill AmazonFresh.

"Amazon reportedly blamed the U.S. Postal Service for AmazonFresh closures"

Quote

Amazon.com Inc. officials blamed the United States Postal Service for its decision to stop its AmazonFresh delivery service in parts of nine states.

Recode reported Amazon officials told food companies that the postal service, which was responsible for delivering the perishable food orders in the affected areas, had too many late or missed deliveries.

I don't find this reason hard to believe. The current state of the USPS is horrible. 

Perhaps it was Amazon's bottom-line/cost that chose which delivery service would be used.

Psst...Jeff Bezos...Cheapest ain't always the best. 

[rotuts]

@Toliver  

 

very interesting

 

"" because of a lack of adequate fresh food delivery options ""

 

""  the profitability of AmazonFresh was already strained in the same areas due to low density population ""

 

"" efforts to hire 6,000 new Whole Foods workers, could forecast expanded operations at the grocery stores as Amazon integrates AmazonFresh and its one-hour Prime Now delivery service ""

 

See ?   the Hub of a razor thin profitability service

 

will sprout from WF !

[Toliver]

The other shoe is dropping:

"Kale to go: Amazon to roll out delivery at Whole Foods"

Quote

Amazon delivery is coming to Whole Foods.

The online retailing giant plans to roll out two-hour delivery at the organic grocer this year to those who pay for Amazon's $99-a-year Prime membership.

It's starting in 4 US cities and will (likely) spread to the rest of the country, eventually, via Whole Foods.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

1 hour ago, Toliver said:

The other shoe is dropping:

"Kale to go: Amazon to roll out delivery at Whole Foods"

It's starting in 4 US cities and will (likely) spread to the rest of the country, eventually, via Whole Foods.

 

Sooner the better.  I hope I live to see it.  There is a Whole Foods about six or seven miles from here.  My guess is that amazon Fresh will fade away completely.

 

[BeeZee]

One of the Whole Foods that I visit occasionally has added the lockers for Amazon deliveries (sorry, don't remember the name they give them). It is a nice amenity for people who live in Urban areas where you don't have a nice covered porch (or other semi-safe area) for UPS to heave your box on to. That is one benefit of the merger.

[Toliver]

A tangential article related to Amazon's new ventures:

"Amazon to Launch Delivery Service That Would Vie With FedEx, UPS"

Quote

Amazon.com Inc. is preparing to launch a delivery service for businesses, positioning it to directly compete with United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp.

 

Dubbed “Shipping with Amazon,” or SWA, the new service will entail the tech giant picking up packages from businesses and shipping them to consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.

 

Amazon expects to roll out the new delivery service in Los Angeles in coming weeks with third-party merchants that sell goods via its website, according to the people. Amazon then aims to expand the service to more cities as soon as this year, some of the people say.

 

The US Post Office should be shaking in their collective boots with this news. If Amazon bypasses the USPS (which doesn't seem to get mentioned in the article), the USPS will lose a ton of money.

The USPS and their shoddy delivery schedules were the rumored reason why Amazon shuttered Amazon Fresh.

After all, it's only "fresh" if it gets delivered on time.