Whole Foods Prices Drop By 43% Since Amazon Acquisition

Back in June, Amazon announced that they were acquiring Whole Foods for a whopping$13.7 billion. This move seemed to be a way for Amazon to gain a foothold in the grocery market in order to augment its existing Amazon Fresh offering. Amazon finally closed the deal on August 28 and they’ve already made some changes. In one of the more surprising turn of events, Amazon is actually lowering Whole Foods prices for certain foods. Whole Foods has amusingly been joked as taking your “whole check” because of their higher prices but it looks like Amazon is trying to change that reputation. According to Bloomberg, prices have been cut by double-digit percentages. Some have even dropped as much as 43 percent.

Organic Rotisserie Chicken has gone from $13.99 to $9.99, Atlantic Salmon Filet has gone from $14.99 per pound to $9.99 per pound, while organic fuji apples have dropped from $3.49 per pound to $1.99 per pound. People have also tweeted pictures of display stands for Amazon’s Echo speakers. The displays use Whole Foods’ “Pick of the Season” ads in a somewhat cheeky manner. Fortunately, Whole Foods prices are in line with Amazon’s online store. Cheekiness aside, the price drops signal that Amazon is serious about competing with the likes of Walmart, Costco, and Kroger. One of Amazon’s biggest advantages in its online store is the deep discounts (and free shipping) available to its online shoppers. If Amazon can subsidize certain food categories, it can dominate the entire market and completely change the grocery industry.

Amazon’s sheer scale will also prove invaluable in challenging Walmart, the current leader in retail. Walmart recently partnered with Google to offer voice activating shopping on the Google Home. However, Amazon’s Echo products have already had this feature using the Alexa voice assistant. Imagine being able to instantly order organic groceries without ever having to set foot in a store or even visit a website. The future will be interesting indeed.