25 June, 2017
Amazon just bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion - which is a huge deal! "Whole Foods Market has been satisfying, delighting and nourishing customers for almost four decades - they're doing an wonderful job and we want that to continue."E-commerce has led to massive declines in retail purchases throughout all product channels in the past decade".
The building's footprint will be 855,000 square feet, but with three stories, the building will have a total of 2.4 million square feet inside. Whole Foods shares were trading just above that level on Friday, as investors saw negligible regulatory risk to the deal closing. Both companies said there will be no layoffs, but did not respond to other questions about Amazon's plans for Whole Foods.
Even so, the bigger picture here is that Amazon sees value in Whole Foods' real estate, which means Amazon is more likely interested in exploiting all of its locations to deliver all kinds of items more quickly to its customers.
News of the deal immediately kicked off speculation that one or more higher bids might be forthcoming, particularly from grocer-competitors like Walmart. off 5 percent Friday afternoon on the news - and food giant Kroger, which plunged a whopping 10 percent on the news.
Amazon's surprise decision to spend $13.7 billion on Austin-based Whole Foods left many local shoppers scratching their heads.
The post Amazon-Whole Foods Marriage Could Disrupt Grocery Business (NASDAQ:AMZN) appeared first on Market Exclusive. Based on his forecasts, Amazon will likely rank as the ninth largest USA grocery retailer this year - though he expects it to assume third place by 2021, behind only Walmart and Kroger.
"I think that this takes all of the pressure off Whole Foods and gives Whole Foods the opportunity to revitalise that business and, of course, it stems the criticism from all of these activist investors", said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail in NY. The natural foods retailer helped start a trend toward natural and organic foods, but its stock has struggled in recent years and recently the company shook up its board and said it would cut costs.
The buy marks Amazon's largest acquisition to-date.
The Amazon Go pilot store allows customers to choose items and then pay the bill automatically by just walking out of the store, all without going to a cash register. The deal includes all 34 Bay Area Whole Foods stores.
So news that Amazon has bought U.S. supermarket chain Whole Foods for $13.4bn is interesting but perhaps not surprising.
That's frustrated investors saddled with a drop of almost 43 percent from the start of 2014 through Thursday, while the rest of the stock market marched 32 percent higher to record heights. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.
Amazon already offers grocery-delivery services in five markets, but analysts say expansion is tough because its current distribution centers are set up for dried goods, not perishables.
Peter Belanger of Newington, Connecticut, who was shopping at a Whole Foods in West Hartford, said he didn't think he'd be interested in groceries online.
