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

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#381

Post by foobarbazetc » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

illumin8 wrote: post #55

_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…

Disclaimer: I work for AWS, but my opinions are my own. I don't think you have much to worry about if you're a WF employee. Amazon actually treats their employees very well. In my experience here, I've never seen any of the things the NY times article talked about, either on my team or any other team I've interacted with. People have a healthy work/life balance (40-50 hours a week), get paid very well (definitely abo…

I'm sure this is true but you sound exactly like Uber employees who come on here and say they've never seen any of the issues.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#382

Post by andrewprock » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 3:54 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #352

novia wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>> I have never worked as a cashier, but I can't imagine it's a very fun job. Automating out those jobs seems like a win-win, as long as the former cashiers can find a job doing something else. Stacking the shelves isn't anymore fun that working the checkout. As someone who has done both I'd say checkout is the preferred role as it's much less physical (stacking shelves gets tiring after 8 hours) and you get chat to…

Having done both, I prefer stocking. But that comes with a caveat that I've never worked more than a four hour shift. I can imagine that an eight hour shift of stocking would be brutal.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#383

Post by pfarnsworth » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 3:57 PM UTC

_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…

You don't spend $15B on something known for its strong culture and then gut the culture.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#384

Post by magic_beans » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 3:59 PM UTC

marrone12 wrote: post #294

tuna-piano wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thought. People still like food and food things and being social, and the "farmers market" feeling. Even in a future which makes online grocery great for mundane shopping, people still need stuff to do. Whole Foods already has bars, cafes, and restaurants. Maybe Whole Foods locations turn into places where people can hang out, try new things, and buy online grocery delivery (or pickup delivery as well)? Who shoul…

Yeah, I wonder how this is going to affect Blue Apron's upcoming IPO. My guess is for the worse.

I really don't undertand how companies like Blue Apron and Plated ever expected to be in business very long. Do they get many repeat customers? Theoretically a subscriber would actually learn to cook over time and then Blue Apron would lose that customer... I just don't understand the long term goal.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#385

Post by pfarnsworth » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 3:59 PM UTC

What about Instacart? They had a sweet deal, if it continues then it means Amazon will buy them. If it gets cancelled it means Instacart is fucked.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#386

Post by jarjoura » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 3:59 PM UTC

This might just be a strategic move to block Instacart as every WF I've been to recently had created an entire checkout section just for Instacart.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#387

Post by lwlml » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 4:00 PM UTC

dx034 wrote: post #178

lwlml wrote: post #153

Amazon is now (or more so now) like Evil Corp in the Mr. Robot kind of way. You can ship your Evil groceries via Evil Prime purchased via voice-command with your Evil assistant device paid for with your Evil credit-card. Evil. Frankly I don't buy as much from WF anymore considering that what they carry is much more like "organic junk-food" than actual food. If you really want to support the "cause", find yourself a l…

They don't offer bank accounts yet. Only then Mr Robot could come and change the world by hacking them /s

If Amazon could drop $13B on a national grocery retailer they could just as easily drop some number of billions to buy every podunk regional bank willing to sell and merge them into the Bank of Amazonia.

If Elon Musk doesn't do it first to enable easy financing for Elon Musk-fans' buying everything Elon Musk. Musk.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#388

Post by justinzollars » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 4:00 PM UTC

Amazon's Global conquest continues.

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#389

Post by InitialLastName » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 4:01 PM UTC

blantonl wrote: post #94

ckastner wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$13.7B / 431 = $31.79m per store. I have zero experience with real estate prices for retail outlets, but it feels as if that's a bit on the high end?

* distribution network * store stock * employees * high end real estate Sounds like a great deal for Amazon

    * High-end food brand to sell from

Re: Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $13.7B

#390

Post by novia » Fri, Jun 16, 2017, 4:02 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #352

novia wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>> I have never worked as a cashier, but I can't imagine it's a very fun job. Automating out those jobs seems like a win-win, as long as the former cashiers can find a job doing something else. Stacking the shelves isn't anymore fun that working the checkout. As someone who has done both I'd say checkout is the preferred role as it's much less physical (stacking shelves gets tiring after 8 hours) and you get chat to…

Good point. I'm an introvert so talking to people for 8 hours wouldn't be my favorite thing in the world, but sometimes I forget not everyone is like me.

When I was talking about the other jobs at WF I was thinking about like.. the ice cream scooper, and the smoothie maker, and the customer service rep at the front for when people want to return items. That's not to mention all the the chefs that make the food for the hot bar, or the bread and cookies for the bakery department, or the sushi. All of those jobs could have a social element to them.