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

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#671

Post by intopieces » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 8:59 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.

Purity tests / "all or nothing" thinking is reductive. Everyone picks their battles. Ethical consumption is not possible in the light of a global economy.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#672

Post by joering2 » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 9:01 PM UTC

mikekij wrote: post #587

Geekette wrote: post #166

You know the race for global trade dominance is heating up and playing out regionally when the same company tries to buy Slack and Whole Foods in the same week. While one is familiar with conglomerates holding a diverse array of businesses, it's fascinating and slightly unnerving (in terms of market power increasingly concentrated in fewer hands) to see it in motion.

Agreed. I love Amazon prime, and also love Slack. But I fear the day when all of the "good companies" end up being owned by one corporate overlord.

That's nothing new...

Media:

http://libreria.sourceforge.net/library/Free_Culture/images/...

Food:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7KY4dEnHmnc/U9bkkriu8hI/AAAAAAAAD9...

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#673

Post by kilroy123 » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 9:06 PM UTC

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).

> ALDI/Lidl (discount, no-frills)

I really see this as the future. Not the whole foods, upper scale, and more expensive store; model. By and large, the middle class is shrinking and with automation looming, it will only get worse.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#674

Post by SubuSS » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 9:08 PM UTC

s73ver wrote: post #646

markshead wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the ones who bought stock (including those that did so at the 85% discount) will get the value of their stock. However, shareholders aren't guaranteed any returns. If they bought their stock in 2013 they lost money. Employees who bought stock with the 85% discount won't be quite as bad off as non-employee shareholders. Imagine suggesting that any employee who was hired when the stock price was higher than the sel…

I reject that notion entirely. The employees are the reason why the store was able to do so well. They should get the bulk of the reward for that. I flat out reject this idea that people should get the bulk of reward simply for already having money.

You keep referring to the 'moneyed' as an alien entity when in reality it is a lot of index funds, pension funds, 401ks and what not.

Are you saying there should be less/no return for investing your money? If so, how do you suppose we incentivize investments?

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#675

Post by dragonwriter » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 9:08 PM UTC

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?

> I wouldn't say obviously. From my perspective Obamacare is fascist

It's not. Fascism is characterized xenophobia and militant nationalism, among other things.

You could, I suppose, argue that Obamacare is a weak single-industry example of corporatism, and it's true that fascism (like many things that are not fascism) incorporates corporatism, but calling it fascist on that basis is like saying an explicitly atheist free-market system looks Communist because it rejects religion.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#676

Post by muninn_ » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 9:10 PM UTC

laretluval wrote: post #655

panarky wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great discussion of company culture, treatment of employees, worker cooperatives, etc., but I hoped HN would go deeper into the business and technology implications. What is the strategic logic behind this move? NYT, WaPo, WSJ, Bloomberg all take the same line: this is about Amazon's expansion into brick-and-mortar retail. They need a physical footprint, knock out Instacart for delivery, accelerate Amazon G…

> Customers already trust Whole Foods and they like the assortment, but (1) only a small percentage of the population has access to a store, and (2) an even smaller percentage of the population can afford it. > What if this is about taking the Whole Foods concept online in a big way ... make it dramatically more efficient, aggressively lower prices, and deliver all this goodness to a far larger percentage of the popu…

Only if you erode their core customer values and degrade the products. I find it easy to imagine a more streamlined business with more affordable prices in Whole Foods. Why not?

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#677

Post by kp1234321 » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 9:11 PM UTC

harrisreynolds wrote: post #592

samstave wrote: post #532

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just sad that true disruption isn't happening in the grocery/food sectors; buying WF, or throwing tech at food isn't a solution that will reduce food costs or feed more people... I'd rather see someone create a business that makes it so that anyone on minimum wage can support and healthily feed a family.

I hear you. And agree. But that is a different problem. To eat healthy on a very low wage you need to live enough out of the city to be able plant a garden and grow your own vegetables. OR shop at a place like Aldi but make sure to buy fresh food instead of the packaged crap. But Whole Paycheck is a different market.

It's my understanding that growing your own food was way more expensive than buying it, even from a premium market like Whole Foods.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#678

Post by codecamper » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 9:24 PM UTC

skinnymuch wrote: post #165

Wow all cash? Amazon's cash pile will be pretty small relatively speaking after this. Less than $10B.

I read they will have to borrow the purchase amount.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#679

Post by illumin8 » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 9:26 PM UTC

computerex wrote: post #662

illumin8 wrote: post #602

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever worked a minimum wage food service or warehouse job before? I have, and believe me, it's hell. I spent my high school years working as a cook at KFC. Hot summer days spent making $3.35 an hour standing over pressure cookers full of 400 degree hot oil and lifting 50 pound baskets of deep fried chicken out of them. You get a 15 minute paid break every 4 hours, and a mandatory 30 minute unpaid break for lu…

What the hell is your point? That amazon treats unskilled labor in fulfillment centers less badly than KFC? Amazon has earned itself a reputation for being frugal/fostering a poor work life balance. You countered by saying that those stories only apply to seasonal "unskilled labor" in fulfillment centers. I am of the opinion that amazon should treat all of their employees well. OP is concerned about the impact amazon…

I'm not going to argue with you. I'm just pointing out that many of us have relatively easy white-collar jobs that pale in comparison to the hard, manual labor that our grandparents did. Expecting a warehouse job to coddle you is ridiculous. You're working in a warehouse - you know you're going to be standing on your feet, walking about 10 miles a day, your entire shift (outside of breaks). If you can't handle that, don't take the job. Nobody is forcing you to.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#680

Post by mee_too » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 9:26 PM UTC

landryraccoon wrote: post #596

andreyf wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No competent programmer I know has to work 40 hours a week to have their needs met. The best ones charge rates would allow them to have their needs met working <10 hours a week.

If I can work 10 hours to have my needs met, I'd rather work 40 hours so I can travel 4 times more and have 4 times more cool stuff.

Travel can be extremely cheap nowadays, e.g. budget airlines on weekdays, last minute deals from the big tour operators. Working one 10 hour day a week will allow for way more travel than 4x the money on a 4 or 5 days work week.

Last year I had a consulting gig in a Europe based company, with offices next to a big airport. As summer was slow anyway I'd work 30h weeks (invoicing four 7.5 hour work days) Tuesday - Thursday, and spend the other 4 days at a beach in Ibiza, Bulgaria or Cape Verde (with occasional remote login to take care of emergencies).