Amazon Buys Whole Foods for $13.7 Billion

The Largest Name in Retail Continues to Grow

Amazon.com (AMZN) recently announced it’s taking over the trendy supermarket chain, Whole Foods. At the beginning of this year I wrote an article which included a prediction that this would happen. Maybe Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos got the idea from reading my blog. 🙂

Whole Foods sells healthy, organic products. Most items in the stores can be expensive, but  if you want to grab a quick and healthy lunch, you can buy half a pizza for $7 CAD, which isn’t bad. I remember my first time visiting Whole Foods. I didn’t really know what it was so I had no idea what’s in store. 😉 But after going in I quickly understood why the retailer attracts so many yuppies and hipsters like myself. Shopping there is an experience. 😀

This acquisition is a very good deal for both companies. Whole Foods Market Inc has been suffering from declining same-store sales year after year. Whole Foods stock (WFM) peaked in 2013 and has been falling every year since. 🙁 So it needs a larger company to help turn things around. Amazon has already been experimenting with grocery stores since last year with its Amazon Go project. The idea is consumers can walk into a store, buy the food they want, and leave without lining up or checking out. The in-store scanners do everything automatically so people can just walk out of the store and get charged the correct amount. It’s a really neat concept, but the service is only in the U.S. for now. By merging with a grocery chain, Amazon can expand its grocery business, and can also transform unused Whole Foods real estate into Amazon warehouses. 🙂

Whole Foods stock is up about 25% in the last 5 trading days and now sits at $43. Amazon stock is now at $1,002 per share. I like shopping with both retailers, and I look forward to see how they collaborate.

Disclaimer: I own 10 shares of AMZN, and no shares of WFM.

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