How Whole Foods Has Affected The Grocery Business One Year After The Amazon Deal
November 8, 2018 | 1 min to read
It’s been more than a year since e-commerce giant Amazon.com bought Whole Foods Market Inc. for $13.7 billion, a deal many expected would upend the grocery industry, especially in the hotly competitive Southern California region.
Given Amazon’s record of aggressively using lower prices, technology and vast, efficient distribution to revolutionize retail sectors such as books and electronics, there was speculation Amazon would have the same effect on grocery sales. For instance, Amazon rolled out free two-hour delivery of Whole Foods products to Amazon Prime members in April and four months later added curbside grocery pickup at Whole Foods stores.
But the merger hasn’t yet set off a major transformation of the industry, although Amazon’s arrival has sparked some changes both at Whole Foods and its rival supermarkets, according to Burt P. Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group, a retail consulting firm.
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