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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

#761

Post by megablast »

examancer wrote: post #648
prewett wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they are paying in cash, not stock. The company sold the stock a long time ago, so whatever the stock does has no impact on the company. The stockholders, however, benefited 3.5%, assuming they sell now.

This is not accurate. Companies hold back some stock during their IPO for various reasons. Amazon held back 23 million shares. It also has repurchased a fair number of shares it holds as "treasury stock" on its balance sheet that appears to have netted them a few billion in appreciation. This of course pales in comparison to the 478 million outstanding shares, so, you are correct: their shares don't appreciate nearly…

Sure, but they aren't taking advantage of this rise unless they sell more stock, right.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#762

Post by Retra »

sqeaky wrote: post #722
Retra wrote: post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not?

"It wouldn't scale up" is common conservative response to progressive or liberal comparisons that involve suggestions of doing it (anything) some other way. So while the EU plugs away making incremental improvements each year we keep jumping around in fits and spurts forward and backward. There is still a strong belief of American Exceptionalism even in fields where we are clearly inferior. Look at Healthcare Europe…

Well, there could be legitimate reason that it couldn't scale up, but... "necessity is the mother of invention" and I don't feel it should be left at that. (Particularly on HN, where people seem to take inordinate pride in their ability to find ways of scaling things up.)

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#763

Post by xenadu02 »

SubuSS wrote: post #674
s73ver wrote: post #646

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

The top 5% own >70% of all stock, so no it mostly isn't grandma's 401k or grandpa's pension. Half of all Americans don't own a single share of anything in any form.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#764

Post by omegaham »

naravara wrote: post #579
scotchio wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean to be fair, most of the jobs at WF stores ARE unskilled labor though.

Our proclivity to treat all “unskilled labor” as if the people doing them are trained monkeys is one of the reasons customer service in large retail stores is so often horrible. If you treat your people like valuable members of society/your organization they will develop and improve on the actual skills that an unskilled job needs, like anticipating problems, knowing when an how to escalate issues, being warm to cust…

When comparing price to customer service, price wins every time.

We can say all we please that we want great customer service, but we vote with our wallets, and our wallets say "Save $5 per trip to interact with the trained monkeys."

Thus, we have Walmart.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#765

Post by jrnichols »

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…

Honestly, I'd be thrilled if they simply added an Amazon Locker at each WF location. I'm in the north Dallas/Ft Worth area, and occasionally buy pricy stuff from Amazon that I'd rather not have sitting on my front porch with all of the package thefts that happen nationwide. A nearby locker would be great. Example: I'm near McKinney. The nearest Amazon Locker is either at a 7-11 in Garland, or way out at a QuikTrip gas station in Greenville. (Yes, Greenville!)

A locker would get me into Whole Foods more often for sure.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#766

Post by MS-DDOS »

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…

Keep in mind this is from 2011...A lot has changed at Amazon since then.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#767

Post by cholantesh »

jhall1468 wrote: post #670
wavefunction wrote: post #664

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I specifically said I like Obamacare more than any alternative other than single payer. And the profits are guaranteed by the individual mandate on young people.

You also said it's facist which is wrong. And the profits are not guaranteed by the individual mandate, ALL that's guaranteeing is a slow-down in healthcare costs that are spiraling out of control. Young people use healthcare. Everyone uses healthcare. When it goes unpaid, those of us that have insurance pay for those that don't. I'd rather have single payer too. But that doesn't make an "okay" alternative to it faci…

Nit: Why do you keep misspelling fascist?

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#768

Post by jrnichols »

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 did a contract at Amazon here in the Dallas/Ft Worth area, and in my experience between the warehouses (I think that there are now 8 in the DFW area alone) these stories were the exception, not the norm.

I wasn't a contract product picker either, I'm a Paramedic that helped staff the on-site medical clinic, which exists mostly for workers comp paperwork and the occasional emergency. (in 6 months, I responded to 2 actual medical emergencies.)

The warehouses were not overheating even in the Texas sun, we didn't have an ambulance sitting outside, and people weren't passing out. I'm not sure what was up with the one in the story but it definitely sounds like more of an exception than the rule. But that story of that warehouse just keeps coming up.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#769

Post by steego »

dsmithatx wrote: post #702
steego wrote: post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't emphasize enough how food is a fundamentally different business in so many ways. First, to say the product is evaluated and experienced in a much more visceral way than most other industries is a huge understatement. Our bodies, like most other animals, dedicate so many resources and features to the quality detection and digestion of food and our second largest concentration of nerve cells exists in our gut.…

They are about as different as running an online book store is to running one of the largest clouds on earth.

I don't care to argue whether this is true or not, but I will highlight that the cloud business was nascent enough that Amazon had the opportunity to define it and they were able to bootstrap quickly because running a large data center was already part of their core competency.

Granted, building a global scale infrastructure was an amazing accomplishment, but you have to concede it's easier when you're starting with a team who already knows something about the business.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#770

Post by thrill »

megablast wrote: post #761
examancer wrote: post #648

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not accurate. Companies hold back some stock during their IPO for various reasons. Amazon held back 23 million shares. It also has repurchased a fair number of shares it holds as "treasury stock" on its balance sheet that appears to have netted them a few billion in appreciation. This of course pales in comparison to the 478 million outstanding shares, so, you are correct: their shares don't appreciate nearly…

Sure, but they aren't taking advantage of this rise unless they sell more stock, right.

Stock price is fungible (with good management) - the increased value can have effect elsewhere.
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