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Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

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Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#431

Post by jhall1468 »

loudin wrote: post #91
bspn wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Zappos is a probably a pretty good proxy. They too had a very different culture to Amazon at the time of acquisition, but I believe it has largely remained intact many years post-acquisition. Amazon as a company has many flaws in its culture (if we are to believe the reports), but they seem to do acquisitions pretty well and know when to leave things alone and let them do their thing.

I think this is a different beast. I personally loved shopping at Whole Foods because the food is high quality and their employees are treated well. These tenets are totally incompatible with Amazon's culture. Sure, now they say they will run it independently, but if Amazon were to struggle with Whole Foods, the first thing they do will be to lower labor costs and food costs. Unions to protect workers are now more im…

> Amazon were to struggle with Whole Foods, the first thing they do will be to lower labor costs and food costs.

They'd do what any company that doesn't want to end up bankrupt to do. Attack the easy parts first (overly expensive infrastructure, etc) then hit the two major cost centers: labor and food costs.

If it comes down to two options: lower wages/quality of food or a company that no longer exists, the former is probably the better alternative, no?

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#432

Post by rubidium »

rmoriz wrote: post #113
pythonaut_16 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't count out Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US. According to Wikipedia in 2015 it trailed only Walmart and Costo in worldwide revenue, and had 20% more revenue than Amazon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail#Global_top_ten_retailer...

Kroger has some weak points: Only US, expensive store concept, many products. ALDI and Lidl are famous for their highly efficient lean store concept. Amazon will capture the premium/delivery segment. ALDI and Lidl will capture the discount segment. Kroger is right in between, a very, very tough position to hold.

Except for the majority of middle class people like somewhere in between. They can't afford premium, but want a little more assistance than ALDI.

Basically, there's three market segments, not two.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#433

Post by Retric »

wooter wrote: post #400
throwaway91111 wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you can call this capitalistic, though. WF as a commune could likely share many of the benefits or exceed them even without requiring shareholders to satisfy. Instead, a devotion to profits will ensure they are given the minimum to execute their job well. It'll be interesting to see what bezos does with it for sure.

name a single commune as successful or operating at the scale of Whole Foods or Amazon. in history.

Whole foods is vastly larger than the majority of organizations world wide. Remember the world GDP is only ~80,000 billion so there is a rather small number of Organizations with 10 billion per year in Revenue.

But, if your just mean billion plus dollar orgs then something like : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Farmers_of_Alberta is an interesting comparison. Further, measuring the success of such organizations is hard especially when they are not trying to make a profit. I mean how do you measure something like the US Democratic and Republican parties?

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#434

Post by markshead »

sbarre wrote: post #161
Joakal wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Treating them above market or not, Amazon acquired the company for billions and not because Whole Foods was doing badly.

How many of those billions will the average employee get to see?

Is there any reason they would get a different amount per share than other shareholders? I'd assume it would only depend on how much stock they have obtained either by purchasing it from the market, using the stock purchase plan (where they can buy it for 85% of market price if they agreed to keep it for 2 years), or the stock-grants that were given to employees.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#435

Post by wavefunction »

I wouldn't say obviously. From my perspective Obamacare is fascist even as I support it compared to the alternatives save single-payer national healthcare.

What other ideology than fascism best describes government coercion of its citizens to engage in business relationships with the insurance companies to ensure their profits remain at certain levels?

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#436

Post by s73ver »

emodendroket wrote: post #32
pc86 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nice to see non-union employees treated well and paid well, not because of any negative feelings toward unions or unionization, but because I think it shows that you can be a successful capitalist without trying to suck every ounce of productivity and profit out of your lowest-paid employees.

Maybe, but the fact that they were just acquired by a company notorious for abusing its low-level employees shows the limitations of this model (as did the pressure they began to face from investors to tighten up on that front when they started to become less profitable).

Maybe. But how have some of Amazon's other acquisitions gone? I believe Audible and Zappos were largely left alone after they were bought, but I could be wrong.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#438

Post by jhall1468 »

alanfalcon wrote: post #314
jasode wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Amazon acquisition of Zappos shoes is an indicator, Jeff Bezos let Tony Hsieh (CEO) continue to keep the culture. Hsieh said in past interviews that Bezos if fairly hands off. There was still some business "synergy" in the acquisition because Zappos logistics got integrated into the Amazon warehouse in Kentucky. Whether Bezos treats Whole Foods the same probably depends on whether he has confidence in existing man…

Zappos CS, front office, creative staff (etc.) got to keep their culture. Zappos warehouse workers got shafted.

Blame Hsieh. He is given carte blanche over Zappos as long as he meets his revenue targets. Full stop.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#440

Post by laurencerowe »

wooter wrote: post #400
throwaway91111 wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you can call this capitalistic, though. WF as a commune could likely share many of the benefits or exceed them even without requiring shareholders to satisfy. Instead, a devotion to profits will ensure they are given the minimum to execute their job well. It'll be interesting to see what bezos does with it for sure.

name a single commune as successful or operating at the scale of Whole Foods or Amazon. in history.

In the U.K. both the Co-op (a consumer owned co-operative) and John Lewis/Waitrose (a worker owned partnership) have similar revenue figures to Whole Foods.
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