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Amazon's Whole Foods Price Cuts Brought 25% Jump in Shoppers

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Re: Amazon's Whole Foods Price Cuts Brought 25% Jump in Shoppers

#91

Post by webnrrd2k »

iamleppert wrote: post #81
vkou wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An hour of a software engineer's time is worth ~$30-50. At least, many of them happily pay that much for someone to do an hour's worth of chores for them. Unless you're buying industrial quantities of food, I doubt a trip to the farmer's market will save you $40. The quality difference is also difficult to quantify. Onions and potatoes from the farmer's market aren't any healthier then onions from the supermarket. An…

Oh there we go with the "my time is worth $50/hr" thing. By that kind of reasoning, how much money can you save by reducing how much time you sleep by an hour each night? Or maybe if I add 10 people to your project you'll get it done 10x faster?

Additionally, just think how much money software developers could save if they paid $25 an hour for someone to sleep with their wife!

Esitmating 1 hour a week, and an average salary of $50, that's an extra $25 per week, or $1300 a year!

Re: Amazon's Whole Foods Price Cuts Brought 25% Jump in Shoppers

#92

Post by wahern »

tapatio wrote: post #41
ilamont wrote: post #25

I am also an infrequent Whole Foods shopper. Some anecdata to share: I went to Whole Foods the week before the announcement and then again today. I was very sensitive to pricing on the first visit (and, frankly, was pretty surprised at how expensive most things were). On the second visit today, I noticed big drops in the prices of certain items, such as fish, produce, and yogurt. For instance, I don't think there was…

The apples you saw were picked 5-12 months ago. Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/supermarket-apples-10-months-...

No, those apples are fresh. They're cheap because it's apple season. The gala apples on sale are probably too small to do well in long-term storage. Whole Foods isn't the only grocer selling those, either. I bought a bag and just noticed today that my office (a big Silicon Valley company who sources commercially) put out bowls of the same apples (they're conspicuously small and yellow for gala apples).

I don't get all this business about Whole Foods being expensive. I went to Costco, Safeway, and Whole Foods this past Sunday. Per usual, the packaged, vacuumed-sealed ground beef was Generally, for staples (meat, vegetables, canned goods) I've found Whole Foods to be no more expensive, and often cheaper, than elsewhere, unless I'm buying in bulk at Costco (e.g. a case of canned beans). Whole Foods can do this precisely because people blindly buy their premium products, like prepared foods. Whole Foods sells a huge volume of high-margin items. By contrast, regular grocers make their profit from low-margin staples. Thus, for staples Whole Foods will always be competitive. Moreover, because Whole Foods is upmarket their staples (especially vegetables and meats) are often of better quality if only so they don't detract from the overall feel of the store, and in any event they move quicker off their shelves and are thus often more fresh. Compare the butcher counter at WF to your regular grocer, assuming the regular grocer even has one. I can often get freshly butchered, hormone-free chicken for $1.99/lb (never more than $2.99/lb) at WF; at Safeway the only way to get that price is pre-packaged Perdue chickens.

Don't get me wrong--I've walked out of Whole Foods having paid plenty. But it's knowingly and by choice. And there are plenty of times where I've walked out of Safeway thinking, "WTF!?".

I'm not looking forward to Amazon's cost-cutting measures. If Whole Foods moves down market it means the premium shoppers will go elsewhere and stop subsidizing my purchases. Amazon can subsidize the prices, but I suspect quality and selection of staples will go down.

Re: Amazon's Whole Foods Price Cuts Brought 25% Jump in Shoppers

#93

Post by wahern »

zajd wrote: post #29
sjg007 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

White label Milk, eggs, and some other stuff has always been price competitive at whole foods... Sometimes I found milk cheaper at whole foods than safeway!

As a milk lover, I find this hard to believe I've never seen a gallon go for above 2.99(if that) at safeway and never seen one below 3.99(if you're lucky) at whole foods

On milk you may be right. Whole Foods doesn't sell exclusively organic, but they do exclusively sell, e.g., hormone-free products. Whole Foods effectively has a price floor that limits how competitive they can be.

I've found milk and eggs to be sometimes slightly cheaper at Safeway, but they're really bottom-of-the-barrel brands and not something I'd buy anyhow. The brand of non-organic eggs I buy is sold by both WF and Safeway, but WF is consistently But this is pocket change. For higher-priced things, like meats (ground beef, chicken), I find WF's prices to more than make up the difference. Generally, unless Grocery Outlet has a great deal, we just default to buying meat, eggs, dairy, and vegetables at WF when we can. Unfortunately, WF is less convenient for us than Safeway, so we do regularly shop (and pay more for it) at Safeway if we're pressed for time.

Re: Amazon's Whole Foods Price Cuts Brought 25% Jump in Shoppers

#94

Post by londons_explore »

honestlyreally wrote: post #90
taurath wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't been yet, because my habits right now exist around not going to whole foods. They've achieved a willingness for me to try them out again though - probably the next time the Fred Meyer near me is out of english muffins (3rd time in 3 weeks yesterday!) I'll try it out. Having seen some of the price cuts online it doesn't seem like a whole lot, but if the staples like eggs and veggies/fruit are actually coming…

Shouldnt all fresh food be of variable market price? Seems quite evironmentally unfriendly to subside out of season food solely to appease picky customers. Eating local in-season food should be promoted by market mechanisms.

Normally shops have discounts and sales on in-season fruit. The "regular price" is the "out of season" high price all year round.

Re: Amazon's Whole Foods Price Cuts Brought 25% Jump in Shoppers

#95

Post by londons_explore »

exhilaration wrote: post #21
jamestimmins wrote: post #7

As the article hints, this jump is likely driven in part by the millions of dollars of free advertising Whole Foods received from the news, and not simply because there were price cuts.

Possibly, but let me share a story: in the days after the discounts were announced the Whole Foods brand organic butter was completely sold out at my local store, much to my annoyance. That never happened before the 50 cent discount.

Some produce deals don't have much volume flexibility.

A typical deal might look like:

Buy 1k units for $0.20 each with an option to buy 200 additional units for $0.40 each.

If sales are above 1200 units, the shop likley can't get hold of any at any price.

Re: Amazon's Whole Foods Price Cuts Brought 25% Jump in Shoppers

#96

Post by taurath »

honestlyreally wrote: post #90
taurath wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't been yet, because my habits right now exist around not going to whole foods. They've achieved a willingness for me to try them out again though - probably the next time the Fred Meyer near me is out of english muffins (3rd time in 3 weeks yesterday!) I'll try it out. Having seen some of the price cuts online it doesn't seem like a whole lot, but if the staples like eggs and veggies/fruit are actually coming…

Shouldnt all fresh food be of variable market price? Seems quite evironmentally unfriendly to subside out of season food solely to appease picky customers. Eating local in-season food should be promoted by market mechanisms.

Yes it should, but one of the major features/downsides of supermarkets is it doesn't allow you to think about whats in season vs not. Corn can be a dollar an ear even in October when harvesting happens. Tomatoes are the same all year round (tasteless/watery/tart), as are almost all greens. Berries in the winter come from Chile.

If a supermarket had an "in season" section I would shop there almost exclusively, if it meant I was going to to get a good deal and better produce. Even with farmers markets you're not guaranteed to get in season local produce.

Re: Amazon's Whole Foods Price Cuts Brought 25% Jump in Shoppers

#98

Post by throwawayjaja1 »

gozur88 wrote: post #62
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While that makes sense in a generic, economic theory, this isn't how Amazon has operated. Ever. So I don't see why you're picking this hill to die on. My money is on Amazon doing what they have always done: compete with wide selections and the cheapest pricing possible while using Whole Foods to bring their Fresh delivery service to far more markets at a higher efficiency.

I agree with this. It's gotten to the point that when I need something I buy it from Amazon, with the only exception being food. And that last part might change.

I'm already buying everything I need from Amazon other than food... and since Amazon Fresh I've been buying food once per month, sometimes twice per month, as a Friday morning "no shopping trip for this weekend" move - in fact I spend less than I would have at Harris Teeter based on past experience.

I would have done this with Peapod etc but their website was lacking in 1) choices (Amazon will get you pretty much any food item) and 2) delivery window and 3) unattended delivery

Re: Amazon's Whole Foods Price Cuts Brought 25% Jump in Shoppers

#99

Post by throwawayjaja1 »

freyir wrote: post #36

If Whole Foods becomes anything like Amazon, their locally-sourced grass-fed beef could become commingled meat product from various fly-by-night suppliers that's just "fulfilled by Whole Foods." Amazon's inability or indifference to combatting counterfeit sellers on their website has completely eroded my trust in eating the food they source.

I've ordered the natural/grass-fed (not sure if it was locally source, probably not since it is encased in plastic, making it last longer) beef from Amazon Fresh and I'm pretty happy with it (I'm probably not thinking sustainably, sorry) because it doesn't spoil as quickly as the beef I buy from my butcher counter. Side effect is that it is usually less, by weight, than the stuff I buy in person, so I end up eating less, which is just fine. (Steak is, for me, hard to portion into leftovers, it is a mind thing).
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