Jeff Bezos: “Alexa, but me something from Whole Foods.”
Alexa: “Buying Whole Foods.”
Bezos: “Oh Sh%t”
I remember being so enthralled when a Whole Foods opened in my town 7 or 8 years ago. But then I realized how irritating it was to shop there, with organic and non-organic versions of the same products shelved in different aisles (not sure if I want organic spaghetti sauce or not–how can I compare the cost/ingredients if they’re nowhere near each other?), with fish only sold pre-cut in set sizes (what if I want 3/4 pound?), and with the lack of many items and brands I need/want (if I have to go to more than one supermarket to complete my list, I’m not happy). I haven’t been there in years. My favorite supermarket, which is huge, has everything I could want, and it’s organized logically. Maybe they don’t stock organic rosehip nostril emollient, but that’s okay.
^interesting about the fish. All of our WF’s have regular fish and meat mongers.
The meat can be a decent buy but the fish is always sky high.
Use to buy crab cakes that were house made…so good. Then they started outsourcing
them and they are awful.
We live a long way from the nearest Whole Foods. We have four other grocery stores within 10 minutes of our house.
We buy most of our produce at the local,farm where we have a CSA share.
I don’t see us ordering our groceries from Amazon any time soon.
But I will say…in certain areas…this would be a HUGE convenience. I’m thinking Manhattan or Boston…where schlepping groceries is a PITA. How nice to have them delivered to your door…good quality and fresh!
No question…if I lived there…I would have Prime…and consider ordering groceries.
Wondering how this will impact things like Peapod.
I have had the same bad service experience at both of the Whole Foods near us. I used to go regularly for organic apples until other stores in our area began carrying them.
I don’t believe I would use a home delivery grocery service. I like picking out my own produce and always check for the best expiration date on packages.
However, I can see how convenient it will be for those who have mobility and/or transportation issues. For those who are active but don’t want to go to the grocery store, I wonder how they’ll arrange deliveries…I wouldn’t want to have to hang around my home for a hypothetical 4 hour delivery window.
I have ordered care packages for finals week from the Amazon Prime grocery delivery. They were connected to Sprouts (a Whole Foods competitor). Also wanted to send a bunch of cleaning products to D once and I doubt they came from the organic store so I don’t know where the stuff came from.
Delivery window is 2 hrs. And they have a really cute website/app where you can watch the guy on the way and tell you how many stops they have on the way. You watch the car go along the streets. But…very expensive. they add a $5 tip on to the bill so you don’t have to tip the driver. So…they’ve been practicing this in a couple of small markets.
Amazon earned 5 stars from me when they accepted for free - no questions asked - a ginormous kitchen sink that came to me damaged. That’s customer service. The replacement was sent to me lightening speed even though I did not ask for expedited shipping.
That said, I buy my groceries at Costco and supplement form local markets and TJ. Whole Paycheck is not very appealing to me.
The UK supermarkets have had home delivery for years. It was great when my Mum became housebound. I would order her groceries online from here in the US and they would be delivered to her housein Hertfordshire. When I read the news this morning, I wondered if getting into home delivery of groceries was part of the reason for amazon purchasing them. Kicking myself for selling my Amazon shares yesterday after a couple of bad days - nice price pop this morning. Oh well.
I used Peapod for grocery delivery 20 years ago when living in an urban area with limited grocery store access, working 60 hours a week, and mom to 2 young ones. It was a godsend. Home delivery is not a new concept in the USA.
The reality won’t live up to the hype, @TonyK. I went to my first WFM in 1987. Back then, it was unique and special compared to conventional grocery stores. Not so much anymore, IMO. Hence, why they were having lackluster stock performance prior to this announcement. There’s a lot of competition in the market.
Pharmacy is a very different type of business than they are used to. It is highly regulated. You are not normally paid by the end consumer but by insurance. Your profit margins are very thin. Making more than $5 per Rx is fantastic; considering the average cost to fill a prescription is close to $10.
Their normal method of linking services to Prime will not work. Most states require regular pharmacies to be open to all. You don’t have to be a member of Costco to use the pharmacy.
More significantly is the Stark Act. It outlaws any inducement to someone with government based insurance. That is why they can’t use prescription coupons. They consider any paid program which will give preferred pricing to be an inducement. CMS went after Walgreens for selling their Prescription Savings Club to Medicare eligible people. They were fined millions of dollars. It doesn’t matter if the patient uses his/her insurance or not. You can only charge them the normal price. If they want to link it to Prime, they will have to automatically disqualify over a quarter of the population from the program. The Medicare population normally buses more medications than younger and healthier populations. . If they ignore the law, CMS will fine them.
And Anazon is open to all. Prime members just get extra perks.