Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#631

Post by thinkingemote » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 7:59 PM UTC

lorenzhs wrote: post #191

dx034 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small stores, mostly own labels and fewer employees. They buy only packages that don't need unpacking, saving a lot of time getting products on the shelf. Employees work all positions in the store so that shelves are filled when it's less busy and everyone is at the checkout when needed. That way no employee is idle, saving salaries. In the UK they also profit from their European footprint. If you go somewhere else i…

They also have barcodes on just about every side of the packaging. The cashiers don't have to figure out which side is the one with the barcode, they can just slide it across the scanner in whichever orientation it's on the belt. This makes checkout super efficient.

They also have very speedy checkouts, where the bagging is done by the customer at another table. This means one employee and checkout lane can do the work of three.

Also, I've heard they pay their staff the most out of UK grocery stores.

UK: I wonder about Waitrose and how WF was like it. Waitrose is owned and run as a cooperative, which I imagine is both unique and less easy for Amazon to buy.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#632

Post by emodendroket » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 8:01 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #537

s73ver wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

But you are because you own the fund that in turns owns the company. It might not be your intent, and you might not have enough of a vote to stop it, but you are still doing it. (sort of like Americans opposed to the current foreign policy are still at fault for it)

How am I at fault for a foreign policy if I voted for its antithesis (or, perhaps more likely, nobody with that position stood for election)?

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#633

Post by Eire_Banshee » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 8:01 PM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #298

Chaebixi wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Walmart currently uses groceries as a way to get people in stores and when they're in the store they buy other things as well. Walmart groceries is a sad and pretty recent phenomenon. It got people in the stores just with cheap prices long before they had groceries.

Walmart only has good grocery selection at super-centers for the most part

Which is almost all of them now?

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#634

Post by aylmao » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 8:04 PM UTC

chrisper wrote: post #485

nojvek wrote: post #320

I quite like wholefoods. Now that Amazon will own it I feel less likely to support it. Amazon is a cut throat profit making machine at the expense of human exploitation. Wholefoods felt like the little guy who was trying to do things differently from mainstream supermarkets.

By that reasoning you would also have to stop visiting any website that uses AWS. I think that would mean you'd have to stop using the Internet entirely.

Are you implying that it's unreasonable for him to dislike Amazon for its labour practices if he's an internet user? That doesn't make any sense.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#635

Post by decebalus1 » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 8:05 PM UTC

chrisper wrote: post #485

nojvek wrote: post #320

I quite like wholefoods. Now that Amazon will own it I feel less likely to support it. Amazon is a cut throat profit making machine at the expense of human exploitation. Wholefoods felt like the little guy who was trying to do things differently from mainstream supermarkets.

By that reasoning you would also have to stop visiting any website that uses AWS. I think that would mean you'd have to stop using the Internet entirely.

Wow! Overstatement of the day.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#636

Post by wand3r » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 8:07 PM UTC

m-j-fox wrote: post #376

irfanka wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly the reason why there aren't any Software Developer Unions these days.

You're kidding, right? Programmers are decently paid but should strike for a 40-hour work week.

The 40 hour work week is arbitrary. It was made for railroad workers who had high workplace accident rates and worked 6-7 days a week. Many died because pre-implementation they worked at night w/o sufficient electric lighting as it was not widespread yet. After the war; WWI iirc, the framework was applied to other industries.

So if you don't want to work 40 hours, don't. I have much less sympathy for a software engineer who has better leverage than a kid who works at McDonalds and couldn't earn a living wage working 60 hours.

The fact that you could strike and not really sacrifice much; and if it failed find another job, puts you in a great position. Unions are good for protecting those that can't afford to protect themselves and are at a disatvantage. SE is not IMO a vocation that needs to organize.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#637

Post by hosh » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 8:09 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #318

hosh wrote: post #300

Earlier 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 wasn't talking about making groceries into APIs. It's that, because of the way Amazon is structured, changing out things like logistics is easier:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/14/why-amazon-is-eating-the-w...

Flip side is that, according to this: http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/03/27/amazon-go...

There are a lot of troubles with the logistics around distributing produce. The models Amazon has for managing non-perishable goods is not working well for things like bananas. It would be stupid of Amazon not to try to learn from logistics experts from Whole Foods, and Amazon has a good track record for not being stupid.

Side note: just yesterday, my wife and I went to our local Fry's for our normal shopping. They are testing hand-held devices to scan items while you shop and then just settle at the self-checkout line; this was fairly new. We gave it a try just to see what the experience is like (and likely, by the time my step-daughter comes to age, something like this will be normal). I remarked to my wife that Fry's isn't sitting still, waiting for Amazon to take over grocery shopping with Amazon Go, either.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#638

Post by j2bax » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 8:09 PM UTC

illumin8 wrote: post #609

j2bax wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know that there are some stories about bad experiences in the fulfillment centers, but keep in mind that those positions are temporary seasonal work by unskilled labor. This might be one of the more tone deaf things I've read on HN in recent memory.

Please see my other comment. I've worked a $3.35/hr. minimum wage food service job before and it's hell. If you took 1,000 average citizens and threw them into minimum wage food service, factory, or warehouse work, I would completely expect a good percentage of them to burn out and quit within a couple days. Unskilled jobs are just too hard and require too much effort for too little salary to make them acceptable to…

Any job that would cause a good percentage of people to 'burn out and quit within a couple days', would fall into the category of inhumane for me.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#639

Post by s73ver » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 8:10 PM UTC

wand3r wrote: post #636

m-j-fox wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're kidding, right? Programmers are decently paid but should strike for a 40-hour work week.

The 40 hour work week is arbitrary. It was made for railroad workers who had high workplace accident rates and worked 6-7 days a week. Many died because pre-implementation they worked at night w/o sufficient electric lighting as it was not widespread yet. After the war; WWI iirc, the framework was applied to other industries. So if you don't want to work 40 hours, don't. I have much less sympathy for a software engin…

"SE is not IMO a vocation that needs to organize."

The games industry disproves your theory.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#640

Post by Shivetya » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 8:11 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #19

_7siz wrote: post #10

Oof. I wonder what this means for Whole Foods culture and employees. If you don't know, John Mackey, the CEO / founder, is a major believer in conscious capitalism and of empowering his employees. Whole Food employees get paid pretty darn well with some crazy good benefits for their industry and line-of-work (UNION FREE most of the time too!). WF banks on them being true believers and motivators of the cause - includ…

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.

I think many over estimate how much better off people are with unions in grocery level employment and similar. while unions can be beneficial in some areas of employment it is not a miracle worker or guarantee of better outcome.