Thursday, August 24, 2017

Amazon Announces That It Will Cut Prices Immediately at Its New Acquisition, Whole Foods



I love free markets.

Amazon.com Inc. and Whole Foods Market Inc. said Thursday they will lower prices on a range of groceries on Monday to mark the close of Amazon’s $13.7 billion acquisition of the grocer.

“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,” Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer, said in a statement. “And this is just the beginning — we will make Amazon Prime the customer rewards program at Whole Foods Market and continuously lower prices as we invent together. There is significant work and opportunity ahead, and we’re thrilled to get started.”

Kroger’s stock price dropped 7 percent on the news, while Supervalu’s dropped 4 percent. Walmart and Target stock prices fell more than 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively.

Jeff Bezos is a free market genius when he isn't colluding with the CIA.

-RW

3 comments:

  1. C'mon, slashing prices isn't exactly cutting edge sales strategy. I like to think of Bezos as the Xi Jinping of the West. That said, libertarians should brand this as "Whole Foods' deflationary price strategy" or something in that vein. Make Deflation Great Again!

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  2. According to the IYIs at the Fed, this deflationary pricing strategy is an economic horror. People will defer purchasing in the expectation of still lower prices, which will lead to a spiraling down in economic activity and prosperity. Doesn't Bezos know he's supposed to target 2% price increases annually?

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  3. It doesn't take a genius to walk around a whole foods store and figure out what the problem is. It didn't earn the nickname 'whole wallet' without good reason.

    I can think of a more genius reason why amazon would want a bunch of retail stores with relatively large store rooms scattered across the country.

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