Jump to content

Whole Foods, an Austin-Based Store with Over 400 Locations in the U.S. and U.K. - Being Purchased by Amazon for $13.7 Billion


Al Dente

Recommended Posts

Just now, pras said:

It's all very interesting.  Another article I read said that Amazon may also be interested in purchasing Costco.

Rumors always swirl around these things. I heard donrockwell.com is thinking of buying Yelp.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Hell, with all the money I've spent there, I thought I already did.

I believe you are missing a preposition. "Buying FROM Amazon" vs. "Buying Amazon."

(All I can think is, "AHA! Pronoun trouble!" Yes, I know, pronouns are not the same thing as prepositions.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, saf said:

I believe you are missing a preposition. "Buying FROM Amazon" vs. "Buying Amazon."

(All I can think is, "AHA! Pronoun trouble!" Yes, I know, pronouns are not the same thing as prepositions.)

There are commenters on The Washington Post grousing about Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump dining at the lavish restaurant, Kinship. 

All I could think of was, 'Not only could they order anything they wanted off the menu; they could *buy the restaurant* if they really wanted to.'

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/28/2017 at 8:26 PM, DonRocks said:

There are commenters on The Washington Post grousing about Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump dining at the lavish restaurant, Kinship. 

All I could think of was, 'Not only could they order anything they wanted off the menu; they could *buy the restaurant* if they really wanted to.'

I hope they bought very high priced wine while they were there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used Amazon Locker for the first time today--at the H Street Whole Foods--and was pretty impressed. When I checked out online, I couldn't find the link to request a low locker (though there apparently is one), but it wasn't a problem. The locker with my package was in the middle of the bank of lockers, and even sub-5-foot me had no problem getting the package.  The highest row might have posed a bit of a problem but wasn't impossibly high. FYI: Once you place an order, you can't go back to request a low locker. I had a lengthy customer service experience with online chat while they tried to figure out how to do that from their end, and it cannot be done.

And while I was in the store, I picked up a rotisserie chicken...So, yeah, this acquisition was a brilliant move by Amazon.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/13/2017 at 7:56 PM, Mark Slater said:

Prices seem to be dropping at the Foggy Bottom store. The fresh chicken was reduced to $5.99 a pound from $7.99 for cutlets and stuffed breasts. The seafood department was selling lobster tails at 2 for $9.99. These were healthy looking tails  4-6 ounces.

 

The Whole Foods website will give you the lowdown on specials. There have been a lot of great deals.

Mark-- you'll be interested to know the "Sommelier Best in Class Wines" (whatever that means) are 20% off.

Prosciutto di Parma is $18/lb this week. Rib Roasts are $12/lb. Get some tasty Satsumas for $1.79/lb. Rao's Marinara is $7 each!

This is for Foggy Bottom, but the sales apply to all stores in the Mid-Atlantic region.

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/sales-flyer/foggybottom

Amazon has some deeeeeeeeeeeeep pockets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On ‎12‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 10:12 AM, Al Dente said:

The Whole Foods website will give you the lowdown on specials. There have been a lot of great deals.

Mark-- you'll be interested to know the "Sommelier Best in Class Wines" (whatever that means) are 20% off.

Prosciutto di Parma is $18/lb this week. Rib Roasts are $12/lb. Get some tasty Satsumas for $1.79/lb. Rao's Marinara is $7 each!

This is for Foggy Bottom, but the sales apply to all stores in the Mid-Atlantic region.

https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/sales-flyer/foggybottom

Amazon has some deeeeeeeeeeeeep pockets.

Mike, I checked the website for Foggy Bottom WFM, and no lobster special. I went to the store and it was still there. 2 5oz tails for $10.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, Mark Slater said:

Mike, I checked the website for Foggy Bottom WFM, and no lobster special. I went to the store and it was still there. 2 5oz tails for $10.

I don't have a good answer for you other than to say the lobster promo may have been a last minute thing that hasn't appeared on any marketing collateral. Usually, what's on the paper flyer is what they show on the website. The tails might be something they're long on at the distribution center.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't buy meats from wholefoods for ages. I find their prices too high for the quality you are getting. Their air chilled chicken is pretty tasteless, their pork lack flavors and their beef is just mass market beef. There are much better options out there for cheaper prices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Bell and Evans chicken is frequently on sale. What parts are on sale varies, so I just go with whatever it is unless I specifically need something else. It's great chicken. I find their other meats pretty good. Despite my misgivings about how it must be sourced to be so cheap, I buy pork tenderloin at Trader Joe's because it's insanely expensive at Whole Foods. (Yeah, I have my price.)

Increasinlgy, since Amazon took over,  find my WF bills dropping lower and lower. I don't love everything about Bezos or Amazon, but they are cutting prices at Whole Foods. And my Prime membership is paying for itself in groceries even as I buy fewer and fewer other items from Amazon.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, kieplangdu said:

I haven't buy meats from wholefoods for ages. I find their prices too high for the quality you are getting. Their air chilled chicken is pretty tasteless, their pork lack flavors and their beef is just mass market beef. There are much better options out there for cheaper prices.

By far the best value in the meat department are the chicken skewers. I find that one of them makes a meal with a vegetable or rice on the side. They usually cost me between $3.50-4.00. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Whole Foods Spring Rosé Sale Is Back by Bridget Hallinan of Food and Wine

Here's the lineup:

  • Orlana Vinho Verde Rosé - $7.99
  • King Rabbit Rosé - $9.99
  • Mr. Pink Rosé - $13.99
  • Angels & Cowboys Rosé - $14.99
  • Pool Boy Rosé (1L) - $11.99
  • French Blue Bordeaux Rosé - $12.99
  • Ste. Venture Aix en Provence Rosé by Charles Bieler - $13.99
  • AIX Coteaux d’ Aix en Provence Rosé - $18.99
  • De Chanceny Crémant de Loire Brut Rosé - $13.99
  • Presto Sparkling Rosé (canned rosé) - $11.99
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having a little bit of experience with Whole Foods and out of stock situations, the probably culprit is probably the automatic reorder system. Amazon is trying to impose a just in time inventory model with all product going out tot he floor immediately. TJ's has this model too. Little to nothing in the backroom. With TJ's, they are managing something like 1800 sku's, and orders arrive 7 days a week. WIth the exception of bread, everything comes on a TJ's truck. I believe that team members write an order but it is computer inventory assisted and movement is tracked on every sku so the system know how much was sold since the last order cycle. 

The typical Whole Foods has tens of thousands of items. And this is a major hinderance in the just in time model. The law of large numbers assures you that a iven percentage of skus are going to be out of stock on any given day. How many is acceptable is a parameter in the purchasing replenishment system. Apparently, Amazon has quite a tolerence for out of stocks {OOS}.

Now comes the double zinger. When a product is OOS,the movement data is skewed. It is very hard to design a system that captures this in replenishment ordering. If an item runs OOS at 3pm and is replenished the next morning at 8am, the disruption to movement is greater than if the item runs out of stock at 8pm {after the store's rush} and is replenished at 12 noon. Both items were OOS the same number of hours but the "missing" movement is far greater in the latter case. So the reorders will be short what they "should be" and you will get out of stocks caused by that as well. There will be a recovery curve until optimal OOS behavior is restored. On top of that, items at a WFM especially in groceries tend t come in cases. So if an item comes in a case of 12 then the system or a team member needs to decide when to pull the trigger and reorder. OOS behavior is harder to optimize. If you can order by the each {ie most of health & beauty}, it is much easier. But produce and groceries are almost all by the case. 

I saw this OOS rebound problem all the time at Restaurant Depot. They would run out of something like Mexican coke and the next order would come in too small to cover one order cycle, so it goes OOS again. The system tried to build in a slight cushion on inventory to sales to make the optimal OOS rate, but the 'too small' reorder will happen a certain number of cycles and then go away until the next time there is a rush on the item.

Why does this model suck at keeping your local WFM stocked and doesn't seem to be a huge problem at Amazon? That is because you can see every out of stock on the shelf when you walk a WFM. When you order an item with a 2 day guaranteed delivery time and it takes 3, you miht not even notice anything. Or you might question what does the guarantee mean? And Amazon can fulfill your order from any number of warehouses. But if you go into P Street and want garlic, either garlic is there or not. If it is fully stocked at Tenley Town and Tyson's {and for that matter San Francisco} it doesn't help one bit. In fact, if you are told well Tyson's has tons, it might make the problem seem worse. Soul crushing even.

Another factor is the variability of consumer choice. The model works best when consumer behavior is most easily predicted. Cranberries at Thanks giving comes once a year. So if last year there was way too much cranberry int he store, this year there will be less. But if this year, Martha Steward or some influencer on IG has a killer recipe calling for lots of cranberries, you local store is sure to run out. Of course, if Gwyneth Paltrow says don't eat cranberries, and there is a glut this year, next year cranberries will be scarce. Thanks Gwyneth!

Last add: Why is Tyson's well stocked when it is a new store and P Street, which has been around since I was a lot younger and less cynical, can't seem to get their shiitake together? Because Tyson's is new and they have a bigger budget for spoilage and waste. The parameters of the system are set with much more cushion and less out of stocks occur. Until the quarterly bonuses paid the Store Team Leaders come out and they realize that their cushy inventory levels are costing them money. Then the numbers get tightened down. And OOS begin to grow.

Of course, it could be that Jeff Bezos thinks you are all sheep and won't atop whopping at his stores no matter how crappy they get. 

 

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, deangold said:

Having a little bit of experience with Whole Foods and out of stock situations, the probably culprit is probably the automatic reorder system. Amazon is trying to impose a just in time inventory model with all product going out tot he floor immediately. TJ's has this model too. Little to nothing in the backroom. With TJ's, they are managing something like 1800 sku's, and orders arrive 7 days a week. WIth the exception of bread, everything comes on a TJ's truck. I believe that team members write an order but it is computer inventory assisted and movement is tracked on every sku so the system know how much was sold since the last order cycle. 

The typical Whole Foods has tens of thousands of items. And this is a major hinderance in the just in time model. The law of large numbers assures you that a iven percentage of skus are going to be out of stock on any given day. How many is acceptable is a parameter in the purchasing replenishment system. Apparently, Amazon has quite a tolerence for out of stocks {OOS}.

Now comes the double zinger. When a product is OOS,the movement data is skewed. It is very hard to design a system that captures this in replenishment ordering. If an item runs OOS at 3pm and is replenished the next morning at 8am, the disruption to movement is greater than if the item runs out of stock at 8pm {after the store's rush} and is replenished at 12 noon. Both items were OOS the same number of hours but the "missing" movement is far greater in the latter case. So the reorders will be short what they "should be" and you will get out of stocks caused by that as well. There will be a recovery curve until optimal OOS behavior is restored. On top of that, items at a WFM especially in groceries tend t come in cases. So if an item comes in a case of 12 then the system or a team member needs to decide when to pull the trigger and reorder. OOS behavior is harder to optimize. If you can order by the each {ie most of health & beauty}, it is much easier. But produce and groceries are almost all by the case. 

I saw this OOS rebound problem all the time at Restaurant Depot. They would run out of something like Mexican coke and the next order would come in too small to cover one order cycle, so it goes OOS again. The system tried to build in a slight cushion on inventory to sales to make the optimal OOS rate, but the 'too small' reorder will happen a certain number of cycles and then go away until the next time there is a rush on the item.

Why does this model suck at keeping your local WFM stocked and doesn't seem to be a huge problem at Amazon? That is because you can see every out of stock on the shelf when you walk a WFM. When you order an item with a 2 day guaranteed delivery time and it takes 3, you miht not even notice anything. Or you might question what does the guarantee mean? And Amazon can fulfill your order from any number of warehouses. But if you go into P Street and want garlic, either garlic is there or not. If it is fully stocked at Tenley Town and Tyson's {and for that matter San Francisco} it doesn't help one bit. In fact, if you are told well Tyson's has tons, it might make the problem seem worse. Soul crushing even.

Another factor is the variability of consumer choice. The model works best when consumer behavior is most easily predicted. Cranberries at Thanks giving comes once a year. So if last year there was way too much cranberry int he store, this year there will be less. But if this year, Martha Steward or some influencer on IG has a killer recipe calling for lots of cranberries, you local store is sure to run out. Of course, if Gwyneth Paltrow says don't eat cranberries, and there is a glut this year, next year cranberries will be scarce. Thanks Gwyneth!

Last add: Why is Tyson's well stocked when it is a new store and P Street, which has been around since I was a lot younger and less cynical, can't seem to get their shiitake together? Because Tyson's is new and they have a bigger budget for spoilage and waste. The parameters of the system are set with much more cushion and less out of stocks occur. Until the quarterly bonuses paid the Store Team Leaders come out and they realize that their cushy inventory levels are costing them money. Then the numbers get tightened down. And OOS begin to grow.

Of course, it could be that Jeff Bezos thinks you are all sheep and won't atop whopping at his stores no matter how crappy they get. 

 

Thanks so much, Dean. That was super-informative!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are welcome. Most people have little idea of how grocery stores actually function from day to day and in the large scheme of things.

Brands buy their way onto the shelf, even at WFM. Free fills {filling the shelf initially for free; for a slow moving item that can mean financing WFM's inventory for months}, slotting fees, advertising allowances etc.

Brands are required to 'work the shelf' and stock in many departments. Buying back inventory for out of date product. All of these advantage large corporate suppliers at the harm to the small guy. This signs in your local WFM with pictures of farmer's are bull. They harken back to my eearly days as buyer at WFM when I could just buy product that was good. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to Whole Foods right before NYE for some cheese and other party items.  The one in Pentagon City, because we were right there anyway.  They were OF COURSE out of stock of collard greens.  (At least Giant had them in the canned section.)  I bought a butternut squash that got moldy two days later- that was very disappointing.  I bought another piece of produce that I ended up tossing, I forget what it was, and the celery went bad really quick, as well.  I used to go to Whole Foods for produce that was a little nicer than some other places, but that trip really let me down. I HATE throwing away food.  I normally can find a way to use stuff- even if it means I juice it, freeze it, etc, to use it in time, but these really caught me off guard as it was so fast that they went from decent looking produce to bad. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't shop at WF nearly as much as I did 10 or 20 years ago (Amazon is getting a lot more of my $$ directly to make up for the shortfall 😄) but at least once a year I get to visit my favorite WF, in Portland, ME. That is a big, beautiful, amazing store. Anyone else been?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've ordered stuff from Whole Foods/Amazon now a few times and it's been easy, great, and free delivery for orders I think $35+.  Since then, my wife has discovered Instacart for other stores outside of Whole Foods and have had decent success with that, too. And in all cases, we basically do not order proteins or produce because we are toopicky to let someone else pick that stuff. But I have to admit we've purchased more from Whole Foods/Amazon since their implementation of free delivery than we have in the last several years purely due to this feature (free delivery).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Pool Boy said:

We've ordered stuff from Whole Foods/Amazon now a few times and it's been easy, great, and free delivery for orders I think $35+.  Since then, my wife has discovered Instacart for other stores outside of Whole Foods and have had decent success with that, too. And in all cases, we basically do not order proteins or produce because we are toopicky to let someone else pick that stuff. But I have to admit we've purchased more from Whole Foods/Amazon since their implementation of free delivery than we have in the last several years purely due to this feature (free delivery).

I've used the Whole Foods delivery a couple of times and have been pretty impressed. I check the boxes for don't substitute but they have anyway. It hasn't been a problem. One time it was a full loaf of bread instead of a half (and they charged for the half). The other time it was for Bell and Evans chicken that was a prime deal. They apparently ran out of it, and they gave me the same amount of Whole Foods chicken for the discounted price.

I haven't gotten a large amount of produce this way but it's all come in good condition.

It was interesting to read that article about the Logan and Foggy Bottom stores being out of so much. The suggestion that the stock might be getting depleted by delivery orders was pretty interesting. Since I found WF tended to run out of things years before they were bought, I haven't really thought there's been much of a change under Amazon. I did notice produce stock being a problem at the beginning, but that seems to have smoothed out. (I go to either the H Street stores or Old Town.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Foggy Bottom is my local WF. I have seen days where there are no onions or potatoes, which seems weird to me. They stopped carrying my favorite mung bean sprouts. I have never seen empty shelves, though. If you shop there at the wrong time, it is a mob scene of GWU students. The baked goods go first and the cashier lines are ridiculous. The wine selection is average with lots of corporate labels. I prefer to buy wine at Trader Joe's. The shopping experience at Foggy Bottom is strongly influenced by the school's vacation schedule. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...