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Amazon cutting Whole Foods prices starting today
Topic Started: Aug 28 2017, 06:46 AM (141 Views)
Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
This may or may not be good news in the long run. I liked WF's niche and used them for some things. I hope this turns out well, I know it has caused grocers in the area to innovate preemptively.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/technology/whole-foods-amazon-lower-prices-prime.html?WT.mc_id=SmartBriefs-Newsletter&WT.mc_ev=click&ad-keywords=smartbriefsnl
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
Wholefoods seems like such a great shop until you look at:

a) The prices

b) The other customers
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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George K
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Finally
Sort of like an anti-Walmart.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
Good seafood and poultry, cheeses. Sometimes less common items in produce.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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George K
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Finally
ChiTrib column headline: Amazon lowering Whole Foods prices will hurt those who think they're better than you
Quote:
 
Whole Foods has long been a top grocery destination for shoppers eager to spend unnecessarily large amounts of money on food that makes them feel superior to others.

Sadly, that dynamic is about to end. Online retailer Amazon is expected to close on its acquisition of Whole Foods next week and will immediately start — hold my locally sourced camel milk — lowering prices.

A company press release quotes Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer, saying: "We're determined to make healthy and organic food affordable for everyone."

Why? Doesn't Amazon care about people who want to send the message "I have too much disposable income — thus the raw Manuka honey I'm spreading on my eco-farmed brown rice cakes — and I want to subtly communicate that under the guise of good health and environmental consciousness"?

Wilke's statement continued: "To get started, we're going to lower prices beginning Monday on a selection of best-selling grocery staples, including Whole Trade organic bananas, responsibly-farmed salmon, organic large brown eggs, animal-welfare-rated 85% lean ground beef, and more."

Good grief. Now eating ground beef that has been animal-welfare-rated won't seem so special. And the days of silently mocking people who eat irresponsibly-farmed salmon are over, all thanks to a corporate giant that sells virtually everything on Earth EXCEPT status.

When I first heard of the Amazon/Whole Foods pairing, I thought there might be hope for the Whole Foods clientele. Perhaps Amazon would deliver fresh-ground almond butter and adzuki bean and sea-salt crackers to the doorsteps of the worthy via drones named Finn, earthy flying machines that were just working at Whole Foods until their alt-folk drone band took off.

But the press release says nothing about drones with man buns. Just a bunch of blah-blah about "lower prices for customers over time."

If Whole Foods shoppers wanted lower prices, they wouldn't have shopped at Whole Foods. A bargain was never the point.

The point was you could get the same kind of nasty, flavorless hippie gunk that used to sell for cheap at dirty co-ops but pay 17 times more for it because it came in a package with a dolphin and a Native American prayer printed on the label. And that was desirable, because as soon as people who didn't have food with a cool dolphin and a Native American prayer printed on the label got a look at your dolphin-labeled, spiritual, nut-free, 100-percent organic, antioxidant-rich prune chew, they would (you assumed) envy the daylights out of you.

They didn't, of course, but that was beside the point, because perceived envy and actual envy are effectively the same thing for an envy addict.

Now nobody's going to envy your stream-washed organic baby kale because it will be competitively priced and available online at something called the Amazon Prime Pantry.

I see one logical solution to the dilemma Amazon has created: If the masses can afford environmentally friendly and cruelty-free food, then environmentally reckless and cruelty-full food must be priced high and sought after by the elite.

Former Whole Foods shoppers must now seek out expensive cuts of animal-welfare-ignored beef, fatty and guaranteed to come from a cow that was killed in a most merciless way. (Foodies will latch onto the belief that terror promotes better marbling.)
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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jon-nyc
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Cheers
I go very occasionally, the sea food selection is decent. (Though I had better options in the city).

I hate that you can only get organic produce, though. I guess I'm not their target market. :cool2:
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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Catseye3
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Fulla-Carp
Quote:
 
I hate that you can only get organic produce, though. I guess I'm not their target market. :cool2:


:yes: If that policy is for any other than marketing reasons, it's silly. Industrial broccoli is better than no broccoli, by far.

I have never visited a grocery story where the organic section was bigger than the industrial food section.

Not to mention, there is still controversy as to how much "better" organic produce is for you, anyway.
Chocolate doesn't ask silly questions. Chocolate understands.
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
Catseye3
Sep 1 2017, 06:59 AM
Quote:
 
I hate that you can only get organic produce, though. I guess I'm not their target market. :cool2:


:yes: If that policy is for any other than marketing reasons, it's silly. Industrial broccoli is better than no broccoli, by far.

I have never visited a grocery story where the organic section was bigger than the industrial food section.

Not to mention, there is still controversy as to how much "better" organic produce is for you, anyway.
There really isn't. Just as there's no controversy with vaccinations, just a significantly high number of fucking morons who don't do right by their kids.

Anyway, this is really what the anti-Whole-Foods sentiment boils down to:

(1) The prices. Okay, then don't buy the wanky stuff and then you're fine. I mean shit the hot food bar can get you a damn fine lunch for $7—I did this every weekend day throughout July. Chipotle's even more expensive.
(2) It's seen as a Lefty hangout, and well, we can't support that, now can we?
(3) Hipsters. Look, if you follow (1) above, they're not even going to be in your section of the store, you'll never have to deal with them.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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