Amazon devours Whole Foods grocery chain for $13.7B, expanding AmazonFresh delivery avenue...

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Comments

  • Reply 41 of 90
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,038member
    tzeshan said:
    Amazon actually has weaknesses.  It does not make good profits.  In some quarters it actually loses money. So its business model has inherent problem.  In fact many things on Amazon is actually more expensive than Walmart. 
    Do you think this means Amazon will collapse? They are heavily investing into their future. I don't understand Amazon investors, but I understand what Bezos is doing. It's actually pretty damn impressive that they can manage to stay so close to breaking even quarter after quarter.
    edited June 2017
  • Reply 42 of 90
    So does this mean the end to tax-free for Amazon purchases everywhere?
  • Reply 43 of 90
    mike1 said:
    Grimzahn said:
    This company needs to be stopped.
    Uh, why?
    Why? Some people might see such a monopoly as causing a lot of job losses as other retailers are forced to close down if they can't compete with Amazon. You wouldn't care but this type of thing has happened before when big chain-store retailers put local mom-and-pop stores out of business and now those same retailers are getting put out of business by Amazon. People need employment and retailers closing down around the country shouldn't be seen as a wonderful thing. As large retailers vanish, then so might the malls and more jobs. It's great for Jeff Bezos as he'll eventually become the richest man in America, but not so good for people seeking local employment in retail business. Monopolies have never been good for the distribution of wealth.
    ireland
  • Reply 44 of 90
    Bad news for Instacart. Whole Foods no longer needs their tech/personal shopper/delivery platform. Amazon will implement their infrastructure to improve delivery times, and lower prices on high quality food. Which in turn should improve the market share of sustainably grown food, which is crucial for human survival.  

    Whole Foods shoppers know their food quality very well, so I don't think Amazon will go down the PR rabbit hole of diluting quality. 
  • Reply 45 of 90
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,566member
    Soli said:
    MacPro said:
    Just a shout here for Trader Joe's :)
    I figured you for a Publix man.
    I had always been a Publix man myself but have a new-found appreciation for Aldi and their common-sense simplicity, quality food, and cleanliness. My shopping now is pretty much split between the two. 
  • Reply 46 of 90
    dwalladwalla Posts: 15member
    Whole Foods used to be an all organic non-GMO store. But that ended years ago. Will Amazon jack up the prices like Whole Foods did?
  • Reply 47 of 90
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,566member
    LOL, this is just one of Bezos' moves to prop up the stock price with yet another "maybe Amazon can finally make some money outside of web servers" expansion. Whole Foods has been in a long decline vs. competitors and it doesn't look like  Amazon's grocery initiative was really panning out, so it's hard to think that this is really going to work out that well in the long run. 
    Personally I consider Jeff Bezos a brilliant businessman, as does Warren Buffett who very recently called him "the most remarkable business person of our age". 
    He's willing to take significant risk, plays the long game instead of chasing fast profits, knows how to work the money, and has a unique vision for where technology is going.  I wouldn't sell him short. 
    Soli
  • Reply 48 of 90
    tzeshantzeshan Posts: 2,351member
    Soli said:
    tzeshan said:
    Amazon actually has weaknesses.  It does not make good profits.  In some quarters it actually loses money. So its business model has inherent problem.  In fact many things on Amazon is actually more expensive than Walmart. 
    Do you think this means Amazon will collapse? They are heavily investing into their future. I don't understand Amazon investors, but I understand what Bezos is doing. It's actually pretty damn impressive that they can manage to stay so close to breaking even quarter after quarter.
    I think Bezos is feeling the pressure from Walmart. Amazon keeps raising the price that qualifies free shipping. Because it is losing money with free shipping.  The amount of boxes Amazon is using daily is simply environmental unfriendly.  
  • Reply 49 of 90
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    gatorguy said:
    Soli said:
    MacPro said:
    Just a shout here for Trader Joe's :)
    I figured you for a Publix man.
    I had always been a Publix man myself but have a new-found appreciation for Aldi and their common-sense simplicity, quality food, and cleanliness. My shopping now is pretty much split between the two. 
    Aldi is the parent company of Trader Joe's, by the way.
  • Reply 50 of 90
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member

    dwalla said:
    Whole Foods used to be an all organic non-GMO store. But that ended years ago. Will Amazon jack up the prices like Whole Foods did?
    They used to also be completely vegan. They changed because shoppers demanded it and it helped to grow their company to the next level. Customers want options. What Whole Foods won't do is cut quality, so if they can reduce prices while maintaining quality with the Amazon partnership, this will be huge for them.

    Just listen to this terrific interview of John Mackey:
    https://player.fm/series/how-i-built-this-1324390/whole-foods-market-john-mackey
  • Reply 51 of 90
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    The difference between Whole Foods and Walmart and others is healthy (non-GMO) food or at least limited GMO and marked properly like that garbage Monsanto. Now Whole Foods may get more GMO garbage that many (like myself) avoid. I hope not.
    Jeff won't go Monsanto. He'll use this to enhance the brand with organic offerings.
  • Reply 52 of 90
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,566member
    gatorguy said:
    Soli said:
    MacPro said:
    Just a shout here for Trader Joe's :)
    I figured you for a Publix man.
    I had always been a Publix man myself but have a new-found appreciation for Aldi and their common-sense simplicity, quality food, and cleanliness. My shopping now is pretty much split between the two. 
    Aldi is the parent company of Trader Joe's, by the way.
    Yeah I remember a story about them awhile back. Thanks!
    In the US they're owned by Aldi Sud (Aldi US)and Aldi Nord, (Trader Joes) founded by two brothers who split the original company years ago. FWIW Aldi (US) is very often called the better grocer over Trader Joes.  
     
    edited June 2017
  • Reply 53 of 90
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    The difference between Whole Foods and Walmart and others is healthy (non-GMO) food or at least limited GMO and marked properly like that garbage Monsanto. Now Whole Foods may get more GMO garbage that many (like myself) avoid. I hope not.
    Jeff won't go Monsanto. He'll use this to enhance the brand with organic offerings.
    Bezos won't be dictating to John Mackey (Whole Foods' CEO) how to run the place. As long as they don't ever talk about politics, the deal should be good for both companies and consumers.
  • Reply 54 of 90
    metrixmetrix Posts: 256member
    wizard69 said:
    The difference between Whole Foods and Walmart and others is healthy (non-GMO) food or at least limited GMO and marked properly like that garbage Monsanto. Now Whole Foods may get more GMO garbage that many (like myself) avoid. I hope not.
    Gullible are we?    GMO foods are no more harmful than any other food you might eat.    Beyond that humanity has been breeding its food stocks for hundreds of years now to favor specific qualities.    
    Wait didn't they engineer the pesticide in the seed? Can that be good?
  • Reply 55 of 90
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,896moderator
    It appears the iPhone X will be packed with new tech and yet there are analysts saying Apple won't be able to grow any market share percentage at all. I honestly don't know how these analysts arrive at such conclusions when the product hasn't even been announced. How can the supercycle's unit sales numbers be already factored into the share price. These crystal ball predictions really astound me.
    rob53 said:
    I thought Walmart was bad for retailers, now Amazon is going to mess with grocery stores. We'll see what happens when Amazon undercuts (sells at a loss) other grocery stores to gain sales by harvesting their personal information and selling that (SOP for them). People complain about Apple but look at what Amazon is doing. I can't see it stopping with Whole Foods, who typically over prices everything.
    Amazon's intention is to put as many retailers out of business as possible. The greedy big investors love that strategy and they'll continue to lovingly support Jeff Bezos. That's why Amazon's share price will continue to steadily rise. As for Apple, they don't want to spend any major money to boost revenue and the share price will continue to stagnate. Timid companies are unable to grow and Wall Street knows this. Apple will continue to sit on tens of billions of dollars and get left in the dust by the likes of Amazon and Alphabet. It's a darn shame for shareholders how Apple is such a non-aggressive company.
    Timid, eh?  Someone has not been paying attention.  While others launch and later cancel moonshots, or buy things like Motorola or Nokia or Skype for multiple billions of dollars never to get much out of those acquisitions, Apple has been steadily building out an enormously profitable business.  Consider this:

    Apple is a platform building monster.  They treat everything as a platform, initially closed for internal use but eventually opened in intelligent and controlled ways to leverage their developer community, which ultimately cements the platform as an integral part of an interconnected and growing ecosystem.

    MacOS

    iOS

    iOS+ (on iPad)

    CarPlay

    Siri

    ApplePay

    Watch OS

    TVOS

    Apple Music

    Maps

    HomeKit

    HealthKit

    Metal

    Airplay

    Machine Learning

    AFS (Apple File System)

    ARKit

    NFC

    Apple is leveraging them all to create capabilities no other vendor will be able to beat, or even fast-follow because they haven't done the groundwork.  Timid my ass!


    edited June 2017 SoliStrangeDaysbadmonkbeowulfschmidt
  • Reply 56 of 90
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,896moderator
    Soli said:
    tzeshan said:
    Amazon actually has weaknesses.  It does not make good profits.  In some quarters it actually loses money. So its business model has inherent problem.  In fact many things on Amazon is actually more expensive than Walmart. 
    Do you think this means Amazon will collapse? They are heavily investing into their future. I don't understand Amazon investors, but I understand what Bezos is doing. It's actually pretty damn impressive that they can manage to stay so close to breaking even quarter after quarter.
    Amazon is disrupting in a low-margin sector; retail. That's a good area to apply technology because low margin businesses have traditionally not been profitable enough, by virtue of the fact they are low margin businesses, to bootstrap themselves into the modern world.  So along comes a guy (Bezos) who gets investors to foot the bill on disrupting the low-margin retail segment.  And he'll certainly do so, but in the end he'll have modernized a low margin business, and it'll remain a low-margin business.  He's failed, in all but one of his attempts, to disrupt high margin businesses.  AWS is his success in that realm, and of course he's up against very strong and profitable players who will not sit idle.  And it's very early innings for cloud and web services, as it is for home control, intelligent assistants, etc.  So, yeah, I also understand what Bezos is doing, but he's made his name with the low hanging fruit; that doesn't prove he will be successful where it really counts in the technology realm, which requires huge profits to fund R&D that lets you leave the pack behind, as Apple, the platform building monster, is beginning to do.
    edited June 2017 StrangeDaysfastasleep
  • Reply 57 of 90
    wonkothesanewonkothesane Posts: 1,738member
    gatorguy said:
    LOL, this is just one of Bezos' moves to prop up the stock price with yet another "maybe Amazon can finally make some money outside of web servers" expansion. Whole Foods has been in a long decline vs. competitors and it doesn't look like  Amazon's grocery initiative was really panning out, so it's hard to think that this is really going to work out that well in the long run. 
    Personally I consider Jeff Bezos a brilliant businessman, as does Warren Buffett who very recently called him "the most remarkable business person of our age". 
    He's willing to take significant risk, plays the long game instead of chasing fast profits, knows how to work the money, and has a unique vision for where technology is going.  I wouldn't sell him short. 
    Just will he leave the world a better place than he found?

    yes, I know we're not talking charity here. I just would like to point out that apparently you can have both, economic success and a sustainable ethics. I have a hard time to see this in Bezo's growing empire. 
  • Reply 58 of 90
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,566member
    gatorguy said:
    LOL, this is just one of Bezos' moves to prop up the stock price with yet another "maybe Amazon can finally make some money outside of web servers" expansion. Whole Foods has been in a long decline vs. competitors and it doesn't look like  Amazon's grocery initiative was really panning out, so it's hard to think that this is really going to work out that well in the long run. 
    Personally I consider Jeff Bezos a brilliant businessman, as does Warren Buffett who very recently called him "the most remarkable business person of our age". 
    He's willing to take significant risk, plays the long game instead of chasing fast profits, knows how to work the money, and has a unique vision for where technology is going.  I wouldn't sell him short. 
    Just will he leave the world a better place than he found?

    yes, I know we're not talking charity here. I just would like to point out that apparently you can have both, economic success and a sustainable ethics. I have a hard time to see this in Bezo's growing empire. 
    In my experience ethics in the corporate world is very often connected to profit at the end of the day. It's good for business to be seen as a good citizen. You are correct, it's not just to be charitable. I'm sure Bezos is no dummy and knows that too. 
  • Reply 59 of 90
    tshapitshapi Posts: 372member
    It appears the iPhone X will be packed with new tech and yet there are analysts saying Apple won't be able to grow any market share percentage at all. I honestly don't know how these analysts arrive at such conclusions when the product hasn't even been announced. How can the supercycle's unit sales numbers be already factored into the share price. These crystal ball predictions really astound me.
    rob53 said:
    I thought Walmart was bad for retailers, now Amazon is going to mess with grocery stores. We'll see what happens when Amazon undercuts (sells at a loss) other grocery stores to gain sales by harvesting their personal information and selling that (SOP for them). People complain about Apple but look at what Amazon is doing. I can't see it stopping with Whole Foods, who typically over prices everything.
    Amazon's intention is to put as many retailers out of business as possible. The greedy big investors love that strategy and they'll continue to lovingly support Jeff Bezos. That's why Amazon's share price will continue to steadily rise. As for Apple, they don't want to spend any major money to boost revenue and the share price will continue to stagnate. Timid companies are unable to grow and Wall Street knows this. Apple will continue to sit on tens of billions of dollars and get left in the dust by the likes of Amazon and Alphabet. It's a darn shame for shareholders how Apple is such a non-aggressive company.
    I think you misunderstand Apple.  Apple buys company's and invests in things that are relevant to it.  Everything Apple has invested in is strictly computer related. They already have brick and Morter stores.  Apple is doing pretty well if they can add billions every quarter 
  • Reply 60 of 90
    fastasleepfastasleep Posts: 6,450member
    mike1 said:
    Grimzahn said:
    This company needs to be stopped.
    Uh, why?
    Why? Some people might see such a monopoly as causing a lot of job losses as other retailers are forced to close down if they can't compete with Amazon. You wouldn't care but this type of thing has happened before when big chain-store retailers put local mom-and-pop stores out of business and now those same retailers are getting put out of business by Amazon. People need employment and retailers closing down around the country shouldn't be seen as a wonderful thing. As large retailers vanish, then so might the malls and more jobs. It's great for Jeff Bezos as he'll eventually become the richest man in America, but not so good for people seeking local employment in retail business. Monopolies have never been good for the distribution of wealth.
    Pour one out for all the buggy whip company employees. Maybe mom and pop should be getting into robotics and automation?
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