On June 16, 2017 the retail juggernaut Amazon purchased grocery retailer Whole Foods for an astounding $13.7 billion. This purchase sets the stage for total "transformation" of the way we shop for groceries. The purchase of Whole Foods also intensified and shifted many other grocery shopping competitors.
The after effects of the Amazon purchase of Whole Foods caused the downfall of stocks of many competitors including Walmart, Target, Costco and Kroger. Due to Amazon's dominance in e-commerce, stocks of Target fell 12 percent Walmart fell 5 percent, Costco fell 6 percent and Kroger fell a whopping 15 percent! In total, those five grocery brands lost an estimated 26.7 billion dollars in market capitalization ever since Amazon took over Whole Foods. On the other hand, the stocks of Amazon and Whole Foods rose by 3 percent and 27 percent respectively. The negative side of this buyout includes all the jobs of small grocery store owners and employees forced to shutdown due to much more funded and stable competitors.This huge buyout also effected the grocery stores in the United Kingdom, as investors noticed a decline in U.K grocery stocks such as Tesco and Sainsbury. To reiterate, the purchase of Whole Foods led to a decline of many major competitors in the retail industry.
In the words of Jeff Bezos (CEO of Amazon), "Millions of people love Whole Foods Market because they offer the best natural and organic foods, and they make it fun to eat healthy." This quote shows that Amazon rightly chose the right company to buy due to fresh products and loyal customers. Amazon also stated that Whole Foods will remain under the same commands as before which will make this more convenient for all the staff members. The goal of Amazon is to grow their AmazonFresh business as well as enter the grocery industry as a well suited competitor. With Whole Foods, Amazon will also work towards 'grab and go' stores and many other convenient things for consumers. Together both Amazon and Whole Foods are looking forward to changing the future of groceries.