Amazon closes $13.7billion deal on Whole Foods buyout

Amazon closed its $13.7billion buyout of Whole Foods on Monday and as part of the electronic commerce company’s customer loyalty practice, have decided to lower prices on grocery items.   

Beyond lowering prices on organic avocados, eggs and kale, it also means Whole Foods brands will be available on Amazon’s site. 

The company aims to make Amazon Prime the rewards program for Whole Foods customers and offer members special discounts.

Amazon closed its $13.7billion buyout of the organic grocer on Monday 

Certain Whole Foods products will also be available through Amazon.com, AmazonFresh, Prime Pantry and Prime Now, according to ABC News. 

Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, announced in June, the deal to buy the grocery store, increasing his net worth by two billion. 

But despite Amazon’s online dominance, Walmart remains the leading retailer overall, with more than three times Amazon’s retail revenue. 

However, a deal that has brought two competitors together could soon change that. 

With Amazon now having a grocery business, a lot of thing could change for the shoppers, the chain and competition. 

Amazon already lowered prices at Whole Foods on a range of kitchen staples, including ground beef and rotisserie chicken.

 But soon, shoppers at all stores will be able to tap Amazon’s $99-a-year Prime loyalty program to get discounts at stores. 

Lockers will also be added in some Whole Foods locations so Amazon shoppers can pick up orders or return items they don’t want.

Amazon said more changes are coming, but didn’t give details. 

Whole Foods, Half The Prices 

Starting Monday, Whole Foods will offer lower prices on products such as:

Whole Trade bananas

Organic avocados

Organic large brown eggs 

Organic responsibly-farmed salmon and tilapia

Organic baby kale and baby lettuce

Animal-welfare-rated 85% lean ground beef

Creamy and crunchy almond butter

Organic Gala and Fuji apples

Organic rotisserie chicken

365 Everyday Value organic butter

Amazon Echo 

Source: Amazon  

Industry experts expect Amazon to expand where it offers home deliveries, which could include an expansion of ready-to-cook meal packages it’s been testing in selected markets.

As for Whole Foods, Amazon now has more than 465 physical stores in the US, Canada and the U.K.  

Before the deal, the chain was under intense pressure from shareholders to improve its financial results and figure out how to stop customers from going to lower-priced supermarkets to buy natural foods. 

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, who will stay in that role, said Amazon’s history of innovation could transform Whole Foods from ‘the class dunce’ to ‘valedictorian.’

The deal may also give the Seattle-based company valuable data on how people shop in stores, which could leave rivals struggling to keep up. 

Kroger is testing online grocery delivery in several cities. And Walmart, the nation’s largest grocer, is expanding its online grocery ordering and store-curb pickup to more stores and joining forces with Google so customers can order items with their voice on Google-run smartphones and other devices.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk