26 June, 2017
They're the flawless company for us.
At Whole Foods, technology would enable people to pay using their smartphone, instead of seeing a cashier, or even using a kiosk, a source told Bloomberg. "We just had these big grins on our faces, like, 'These guys are unbelievable'". "This is gonna be so incredibly wonderful".
"I think the most important aspect of the purchase is that it gives Amazon 440 refrigerated distribution centers in the USA and probably puts their distribution presence within 10 miles of 80% of the population and within 90% of the wealthy population", he wrote in an email to CNBC. "They're not stupid enough to go change that".
Mackey was vague in responding to questions after his opening remarks, simply saying that Whole Foods will have to "evolve". That might not be the case if Whole Foods was bought by another grocery chain. While Amazon's takeover of Whole Foods will give it more market share in the grocery sector, Chen said wholesaler Costco's notoriously low prices will continue to give it a distinct advantage there. People might look at a bricks and mortar Amazon store as a novelty but won't think twice about walking into a Whole Foods. Mackey had slammed the hedge-fund investors in an interview with Texas Monthly, calling them "greedy bastards" who were only interested in making a quick buck on the sale of the company. I think we coulda talked for 10 hours.
What exactly might these innovations be?
Despite that possibility, Amazon shares also gained as Wall Street analysts lauded the proposed US$42-per-share deal and bet that the company would prevail in any bidding battle.
The line, according to the transcript, garnered laughter from employees in the room. Industry observers have said that Amazon may add a selection of discounted, non-organic food to distance the chain from its "Whole Paycheck" nickname. "Sometimes, our company's gone a little bit too much team member focus at the expense of our customers", Mackey said.
"Amazon is known to scale experiments very quickly".
Mackey confirmed that Whole Foods' quality standards will remain the same and that the grocer's employees will be well taken care of.
Such changes may be a long way off, and Amazon has plenty of time to change its strategy, with the $13.7 billion deal not expected to close until the second half of the year. Amazon has "promised everyone will get an Echo the day of the merger", he said.
Whole Foods also might draw a rival offer from one or more large private-equity firms because "there's a tidal wave of money that's sloshing around" in that industry, said Eric Schiffer, chief executive of the Patriarch Organization, a private-equity firm that isn't involved with Whole Foods.
