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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

#441

Post by timfrietas »

tuna-piano wrote: post #92

I'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…

AmazonFresh has never been about delivering groceries--it has been about learning last mile logistics in cities.

With this move they can a) accelerate that and b) kill Instacart.

The press release they are working backwards from is:

"Amazon today announced today they will deliver their own packages in most major cities in America, reducing their reliance on Fedex, UPS and USPS by up to 70%"

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#442

Post by djsumdog »

jasonjayr wrote: post #278
clutchdude wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also Woot.com - a company who's culture was a strange counterpoint. Amazon thought they understood it, messed it all around and now it's a sad parody of the former site. https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2014/july/... That particular bit about Bezos and the octopus sells it - You'll be fine if Amazon "gets" your company and it's culture. If not, well...

It looks like the original Woot folks want to try again: https://meh.com/forum/topics/faq#q-whats-the-story-here-53a3...

I was going to mention Meh. Their stuff is hilarious. And yep, it's the original Woot staff, long after they sold their baby to Amazon.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#444

Post by s73ver »

bluGill wrote: post #411
chc wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that I can't criticize pathological behaviors by investors because I myself invest in things makes about as much sense as saying I can't criticize bad US policies because I live in the US.

You are the investor causing the pathological behavior. A very large part of wall street is investors like you that just have a little bit in their retirement accounts. Do you vote the proxy for all the funds in your 401k? Do you understand how your vote affects the above - it all does.

Wrong. I am not telling any company to treat their employees like crap to squeeze an extra penny of profit out of them.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#445

Post by jhall1468 »

wavefunction wrote: post #435

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?

It's not to ensure their profits remain at certain levels, the profits are capped, not floored.

The reason for this particular market is because health care costs in this country have gone out of control, and a major factor in that was people without insurance not paying bills, resulting in higher costs.

That's not facist simply because you don't like it.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#446

Post by david-cako »

rmoriz wrote: post #24

Looks to me like the ultimate war between grocery stores in the US will be fought out between Amazon/WFM (premium, delivery) and ALDI/Lidl (discount, no-frills). As a German I'm amazed by the "food haul" videos on YouTube and the positive feedback for ALDI US (belongs to ALDI Süd), Trader Joe's (ALDI Nord) and Lidl (part of Schwarz Gruppe, they just started in the US yesterday).

Walmart is the closest thing to "discount, no-frills" in the US, however it's 100% a facade. Their prices are realistically no better than chain grocery stores like Kroger, yet they do a very good job convincing poorer people that they are. Walmart is also really really gross. It doesn't matter where in the country you go, it feels like a hospital, and mysteriously the people always look like they're one stop away from one.

They spent a lot of money and energy trying to roll out in store pickup, 2 day pickup, and online grocery shopping, which I have been reasonably pleased with, but I think this is slowly becoming a death sentence for them. The one thing they're missing is the brand.

ALDI doesn't have as much dominance yet. Trader Joes has a bit more, and is all around a great store and reasonably priced compared to Whole Foods.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#447

Post by jhall1468 »

alphonsegaston wrote: post #195
bflesch wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be noted that amazon employees also "get paid pretty darn well with some crazy good benefits" and the whole IT at amazon is union free. I feel like this is a great fit, with whole foods being a progressive company in US grocery space.

No one is arguing that the people who work on Whole Food's website are going to suffer a significant drop in the quality of their work experience. It's a fair supposition, however, that Whole Food's front line staff (who map to the warehouse employees that Amazon absolutely treats like garbage) probably will.

> It's a fair supposition

Why? Reviewing any of Amazon's acquisitions shows that they have revenue targets that, when met, means they just don't get involved. Why suppose they are suddenly going to do the opposite now?

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#448

Post by yomly »

Chaebixi wrote: post #273
ice109 wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

source?

It took literally two seconds to find: https://www.google.com/#q=amazon+ambulance+warehouse https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/19/inside-amazons-ver... > In a lengthy and heavily reported article, The Call said a warehouse employee contacted the Occupational Safety and Health Administration on June 2 to report that the heat index in the warehouse had reached 102 degrees, and that 15 workers had collapsed. The emp…

I suspect keeping ambulance at standby was more of a hotfix for a bug, than a feature. Yes Amazon is frugal, but I think it is a bit of a stretch to assume there was malicious intent in not cooling their FCs.

In a giant warehouse managed by a company with > 100k employees, things are not changed that quickly...

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#449

Post by _jal »

vnchr wrote: post #324
rmc wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the 1880s Bismarck increased the modern welfare state (it was called State Socialism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Socialism_(Germany) ). The idea was that, if the poor people can get some form of social welfare from the existing state, they're less likely to support a proper socialist/communist revolution. Sounds like that. People won't unionise when they don't think they need to.

Interesting comparison. In this case, people aren't unionizing for essentially the opposite reason. Rather than state provided social welfare, their needs are satisfied through this capitalistic solution. Employees are empowered and rewarded through their work.

It is important to note that the antagonism between union and management is especially bad in the U.S. Germany demonstrates one arrangement that generally works to align the interests of the two.

Just calling this out to try to counter the tendency of U.S. folks to assume that there is only one, unchanging form of capitalism. In fact, ours is increasingly a weird outlier.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#450

Post by dceddia »

novia wrote: post #309
sebmarion wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, I think this is precisely the point.

As a loyal Whole Foods shopper I am EXTREMELY excited by this development. The worst part about grocery shopping anywhere is waiting in line. There are a ton of jobs at Whole Foods that have nothing to do with running the cash register, and as long as Amazon keeps those jobs intact I am all for the automation revolution. I have never worked as a cashier, but I can't imagine it's a very fun job. Automating out those j…

As far as lines go, one of the things I love about Whole Foods is that they always seem to have enough capacity at the registers so that there's one with no line. Worst case, one person in front of me. And the average cart is small there, so it's quick.

Contrast that to other grocery stores (Shaws and Wegmans, for instance) that seem to calculate exactly how many cashiers they need such that no line is more than 3 people deep, but none of them are idle, ever. And the average cart is full-to-the-brim, so there's always a wait. It can be 9pm at night with 3 customers in the store, but there will still be a wait.

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