"Amazon is trying to become Walmart faster than Walmart can become Amazon!"

Derek Thompson reports at The Atlantic on why Amazon bought Whole Foods.

“Amazon did not just buy Whole Foods grocery stores. It bought 431 upper-income, prime-location distribution nodes for everything it does,” tweeted Dennis Berman, the Wall Street Journal’s financial editor. Amazon is trying to become Walmart—not just an online megalith, but also a physical retail powerhouse with dynamic pricing and stocking strategies—faster than Walmart can become Amazon.

Read more here.

"Sooner or later the value of a common stock will not support the best intentions of well worn Birkenstocks."

Sundance is not impressed with Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods. He gives his reasons here. As for me, I will stick with Walmart!

Amazon purchases Whole Foods and hurts everyone else in the grocery business

Adam Shell reports at USA Today that the purchase of Whole Foods by Amazon has already severely hurt everyone else in the grocery business. Read about it here.

Shopping along side miserable jerks

Nils Parker has noticed that Whole Foods shoppers include a number of self-entitled, angry people.

Then I wonder, why are these people all so angry? Is it something about Whole Foods that brings it out of them? Is it just their proximity to other miserable souls just like them? Is it the outward projection of inner self-loathing brought on by the feeling of utter helplessness in the face of social pressure to pay higher prices for organic, GMO-free, gluten-free, paleo, macro, whole foods?

I would bet if you asked all these angry, hateful trolls trundling to their hybrids in the parking lot trying to reconcile a $200 grocery bill with three measly paper bags full of groceries, they’d say No. They’d say they have to shop at Whole Foods because of something someone else in their family likes that they can’t find anywhere else. They always have an explanation, but it’s really just an excuse. They try to justify it, but it’s always a rationalization.

As someone with a relative high up the ladder at Whole Foods, I feel for him and for the enterprise (as much as you can feel for a business, anyway). Whole Foods tries to bring to market the best products an area’s surrounding farms and suppliers have to offer, in a socially conscious way with high-touch customer service at the point of sale. Yet in doing so, they’ve brought out the worst in the people who are attracted to that idea. Or perhaps more accurately, their idea attracts the worst kind of people. I don’t know. It is a frustrating irony for which they should not be held responsible. There isn’t much to do, after all, when your core demographic happens to be a living, breathing hashtag.

#firstworldproblems

Read more here.

Whole Foods employees beat drunk man trying to enter the store after hours

Walmart gets all kinds of bad publicity in the media. Now maybe it's time for Whole Foods to get a little. Go here to see a video of Whole Foods employees beating a drunk man who tried to enter the store after hours on December 30.

The dark, shaky video shows the workers shoving, punching and kicking the man, who at one point says, "I'm a veteran. Don't do that."

“Whole Foods Market is aware of the incident,” the spokesperson said. “The team members identified so far in the video have been placed on administrative leave while we complete our internal investigation. We take all incidents involving team members, customers and members of our community seriously and consider safety and security a top priority.”