If Hacker News had gold I would give it to you.
I don't understand why I got 10 downvotes on this one. What is the matter with this comment? What am I missing here?
Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B
421–430 of 865 posts
Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B
#422The old joke is that it isn't "Whole Foods" but "Whole Paycheck" because of how expensive they are. I wonder how that will change with Amazon's typically price cutting ways. The two seem somewhat at odds with each other.
Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B
#423I'm confused. Amazon is known to work backward from an imagined future press release, and then do the actions necessary to make that press release. How does Amazon see the future in this case? -Amazon already has PrimeNow and Amazon Fresh, which offer a great grocery delivery service. For those who have tried these services, it's easy to see how addicting they are vs going to a physical store. -I can't see Amazon usi…
Maybe it's not about grocery per se but rather about meal delivery?
Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B
#424Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure, but hearing about how Amazon is running into trouble with their grocery stores, they might want to learn something from Whole Foods (similar to Zappos). There was also an article that talked about the brilliance of Amazon biz organization. Business units are set up like API interfaces, ones that serve both internal needs as well as external customers. The author's claim is that it helps trim the fat, with w…
WF most likely will fail under Amazon (if WF must adapt to Amazon's business methods), opening the market for local competitors and similar national chains to absorb that market share. Great opportunity for Aldi on the low end and Trader Joe's on the high end. Groceries are not APIs.
I don't see Amazon doing much as far as cultural changes. Twitch was largely left untouched and continues to operate as before. This was a strategic purchase so Amazon. They want you to go to Amazon for everything and a popular nation-wide grocery chain is exactly what they needed.
What you will see is a relationship between Amazon Prime and WF. But, as with the case with Twitch, it will be Amazon that deals with that and WF will likely continue to do its thing while Amazon generates MORE customer loyalty and a new customer base.
Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B
#425Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not? The important part is commute. 50hr work week in a job you like with a reasonable commute is no problem for your health. 30hr/week in a job you don't like with 2.5hr in traffic each day is much less healthy.
Unless all 50 hours are compensated, 10 of them at 1.5-2x base pay, the person working them is getting ripped off. Every one of my friends in engineering (actual engineering, e.g. civil, aerospace, etc.) positions get at least 1.5x for any hour over 40 they work in a week. In fact "unpaid overtime" is something I hadn't heard of for an engineering position prior to working in software. It's almost like workers in thi…
Interesting, my undergrad is actual engineer, Electrical, worked in VLSI design (GPUs) for 4 years after college, and nobody I ever heard doing EE every got paid overtime.
Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B
#426Earlier quoted context omitted.
Practice and sharp knives will dramatically change how quickly you can prep, cook, serve and cleanup a blue apron or plated meal. I can usually beat the estimated time by 10+ minutes.
That's awesome... I haven't really invested in good knives yet. My girlfriend who's been a daily cook for years can look at the meal kit recipes and find ways to parallelize or speed them up that aren't necessarily obvious, like boiling this water before you start prepping, or cooking a thing inside another already hot pan instead of a separate one. I think the directions prioritize easy before fast.
The Victorinox 8-inch Chef's knife is only $45 on Amazon (cheap for a good knife), and is really excellent for the home cook who's not yet ready to invest $200 on a fancy German or Japanese knife. It just needs a little sharpening after 2 weeks or so of daily use.
It slices baguettes, onions, and raw meat like dream. I've even managed paper-thin slices of garlic!
Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B
#427HUGE news in the grocery delivery space. Groceries are one of the few large markets that require some proximity to customers due to costs and spoilage. Each grocery store is a type of mini-distribution center for grocery products. Shipt and Instacart have succeeded to date because they use existing distribution channels and set up marketplaces for the "last-mile" of delivery. This is in contrast to Webvan in the earl…
AmazonFresh has been delivering groceries for years training for precisely this moment. This move allows them to very quickly expand that program nationally.
Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B
#428If there's ever going to be a world government, it's probably going to be Amazon.
Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B
#429Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not? The important part is commute. 50hr work week in a job you like with a reasonable commute is no problem for your health. 30hr/week in a job you don't like with 2.5hr in traffic each day is much less healthy.
Unless all 50 hours are compensated, 10 of them at 1.5-2x base pay, the person working them is getting ripped off. Every one of my friends in engineering (actual engineering, e.g. civil, aerospace, etc.) positions get at least 1.5x for any hour over 40 they work in a week. In fact "unpaid overtime" is something I hadn't heard of for an engineering position prior to working in software. It's almost like workers in thi…
You have to negotiate your salary based on these assumptions. Or get paid hourly (as a consultant or contractor). I'm not currently hourly, but I am also not getting exploited, either. Most places I have worked didn't give a damn about their employees. They would just use them up and get new ones when people eventually got fed up and quit (or got sick and quit, in a few cases). When you bill hourly, projects are far more honest in terms of not shifting costs onto the staff.
Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B
#430Grocery stores are a tough market with razor thin margins. Whole Foods has a ton of competitors like Trader Joes that happens to still have organic options. Since I did not see it asked, any idea if we will see some new Prime benefit at Wholefoods?
Out of curiosity, what's your insight into grocery store profit margins? Were you an exec at a grocery chain, or something giving a similar window into their numbers?
I work in the finance industry, so I see a lot of earnings releases.