When Amazon and Whole Foods announced that they were getting hitched in the corporate sense, the benefits for both sides were obvious. Amazon would acquire its way into a grocery distribution network and hundreds of stores with upscale customers, and Whole Foods would get a parent company at the forefront of retail technology. What’s likely to be first up for Whole Foods? Warehouse robots. [More]
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Will Any Other Big Companies Make A Bid For Whole Foods?
By 6.22.17
Although Amazon announced last week that it would be buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, it’s far from a done deal. And in the time it takes to complete such a large merger, there could be a few other players who decide to belly up to the table and make a bid for the grocery chain. [More]
Amazon Merger “Not A Tinder Relationship” Says Gaga Whole Foods CEO John Mackey
By 6.20.17
What a difference $13.7 billion makes. Last week, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey had some choice words for investors who were urging him to sell the company, calling them “greedy bastards.” But after Amazon has announced it’s buying the grocery chain for a tidy sum, Mackey is whistling quite a different tune. [More]
Could GrubHub Be Amazon’s Next Big Purchase?
By 6.19.17
On Friday, Amazon announced that it would be acquiring Whole Foods, an upscale grocery chain with stores across the country. Once that deal is complete and the companies have settled into their new relationship, what might Amazon want to acquire next? One investment analyst suggests that maybe what the Everything Store needs next is some food delivery. [More]
What Will Whole Foods Be Like After Amazon Takes Over?
By 6.19.17
Now that Jeff Bezos has ordered himself a few billion dollars’ worth of groceries with the purchase of Whole Foods, everyone is wondering what Amazon will do with the 465 stores it will soon own. [More]
Amazon Buying Whole Foods For $13.7 Billion
By 6.16.17
Amazon really, really wants to sell you groceries. But starting a new grocery service — especially online — from scratch is hard. It seems, however, Amazon has found a solution: Just buy a well-known chain that already operates nationwide, instead. [More]
Whole Foods CEO Says “Greedy Bastard” Investors Are Pushing For Sale
By 6.14.17
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey has some unkind words for investors who have been pushing the upscale supermarket to put itself up for sale, calling them “greedy bastards” in a recent interview. [More]
The Whole Foods Coconut Mystery Solved
By 5.30.17
It was a dark and stormy morning at Consumerist HQ, when we received a troubling missive: One of our readers was outraged to find that Whole Foods was charging $1 more for a coconut that comes with a straw than one without. We weren’t sure what we would find, but we knew we had to crack this case — one way or another. [More]
Whole Foods Tries To Avoid Selling Itself By Replacing Most Of Its Board
By 5.10.17 — Updated: 5.25.17
A month after shareholders told Whole Foods to shape up and see if someone was interested in buying the chain — Amazon and Kroger, apparently, for a while — the health foods store hasn’t put up the “for sale” sign yet. Instead, the company says it will completely revamp its board. [More]
Amazon Was Thinking About Buying Whole Foods: No, Really.
By 4.12.17
What do you get when you combine a flailing health food chain and an e-commerce giant that’s desperate to get into the grocery business? We could have found out, since Amazon was reportedly thinking about buying Whole Foods. [More]
Whole Foods Is Bleeding, Attracting Sharks
By 4.10.17
What is the point of Whole Foods when you can buy gluten-free pie crust, organic sweet corn, and quinoa in most regular grocery stores? Whole Foods doesn’t seem to know, and neither do the people who used to shop there, which is why a major shareholder of the supermarket chain wants Whole Foods to clean itself up and see whether anyone might be interested in a merger. [More]
Whole Food Recalls Cheeses Linked To Two Listeria-Related Deaths
By 3.14.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Whole Foods has expanded a recent recall of Vulto Creamery cheese products potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes after health officials linked two deaths and four illnesses to the cheese made from unpasteurized raw milk. [More]
Whole Foods Adding Do-It-Yourself Juice Bars To Some California Stores
By 3.8.17
Shoppers can already purchase a variety of juices from Whole Foods, but soon some customers in Southern California will be able to make — and then buy — their own juice at stores. [More]
Aldi Spending $1.6B To Upgrade Stores To Be More Whole Foods-Esque
By 2.8.17
Millennials are already apparently flocking to Aldi over Whole Foods’ new, hipper version of its typical stores in favor of lower price points, but now these customers won’t have to forego the more expensive chain’s aesthetic: Aldi plans to spend $1.6 billion to revamp the layout of its stores in order to compete with chains like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Sprouts. [More]
Whole Foods Closes Regional Kitchens, Says It Isn’t Related To Sanitation Problems
By 1.25.17
For prepared food items in its stores along the East Coast, Whole Foods uses regional kitchens, each of which cooks various in-house items and distributes them to dozens of stores. The company recently announced that it’s closing the facilities in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Georgia, for reasons that have nothing to do with past sanitation issues in one of them. Nope. [More]
Whole Foods Names Co-Founder John Mackey As Sole CEO
By 11.3.16
For six years, Whole Foods has been run by two co-CEOs, but amid increased competition and sagging revenue, the high-priced grocery chain has decided it’s for the best to have only one person leading the company: co-founder John Mackey. [More]
Whole Foods Starts Selling Meal Kits For Purple Carrot
By 10.26.16
Mail-order meal kits are an industry growing so fast that some companies’ own staffs can’t keep up, and all of that growth depends on getting new people to try the services. Instead of selling people on subscribing to food through the mail using words and pictures, the vegan-focused box company Purple Carrot plans to start selling meal kits in Whole Foods stores. [More]
Authorities In Detroit Investigating Hepatitis A Cases Linked To Whole Foods
By 10.20.16
Public health authorities in Detroit are raising the food safety alarm: anyone who bought prepared food at the Whole Foods store at 115 Mack Ave in midtown should seek medical attention, since they may have been exposed to Hepatitis A. While details are fuzzy, they know that the span from Oct. 6-10 is when any exposure would have happened. [More]
