"Entire Aisles are Empty" @ Whole Foods

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CalItalian
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"Entire Aisles are Empty" @ Whole Foods

Post by CalItalian »

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Re: "Entire Aisles are Empty" @ Whole Foods

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Re: "Entire Aisles are Empty" @ Whole Foods

Post by pseudo3d »

The phrase "wheels falling off" comes to mind. I'm going to guess that in the near future, there will be a small handful of WFMs that will close, possibly to be replaced by an original Amazon grocery concept.
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Re: "Entire Aisles are Empty" @ Whole Foods

Post by storewanderer »

I walked the entire Reno Whole Foods tonight and while I saw some out of stocks, and some items that were definitely short stocked, I saw no empty aisles or even empty aisle areas. The store stunk of fish upon entry.

The store closes at 10 PM and the meat department was already all closed up already just before 9 PM when I was there, yet the hot food and salad bars were all still mostly full and rather crusty looking.

This store is part of the Northern California Division and does very good volume, easily over $500k a week.
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Re: "Entire Aisles are Empty" @ Whole Foods

Post by wnetmacman »

I have seen this reported in the media. One person sees an empty aisle, and panic sets in.

Many local outlets are reporting that this is very isolated, and that their local WFM is just fine.

Keep in mind folks; the media will go to great lengths to trash a good thing. Sometimes, they will outright lie to you just to get you to turn to their channel. One or two stores, or one or two cities worth of stores does not a whole chain make. Amazon is going to change these stores, and there may be empty shelves in a few spots while this happens.

DON'T PANIC.
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Re: "Entire Aisles are Empty" @ Whole Foods

Post by mjhale »

The thing that I wonder is how you integrate a high end retailer who wasn't afraid to spend money to get money into a company that is all about speed, efficiency and reduction of cost to bring the theoretical best price to the consumer. I do agree that it might be a bit early to pull the fire alarm on Whole Foods. However one has to wonder what Amazon's real long term plan is with Whole Foods. We've seem plenty of examples in the grocery business where a takeover netted a less desirable grocer - think Safeway taking over Genaurdi's, Ahold taking over Giant-MD and Ukrops. I just don't think you can merge two mutually incompatible formats. I think what Amazon is really looking for is distribution end points in affluent areas to act as pickup points for items purchased from Amazon itself. Then add in there a few high end offerings to keep people browsing around the store to keep them engaged. I think it might be premature to think that Amazon is trying to bleed Whole Foods dry. But I don't think it would be too much to think that Amazon is trying to bleed out what it thinks it doesn't need from Whole Foods to make Whole Foods fit into Amazon's master plan.
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Re: "Entire Aisles are Empty" @ Whole Foods

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote: January 20th, 2018, 5:18 am Keep in mind folks; the media will go to great lengths to trash a good thing. Sometimes, they will outright lie to you just to get you to turn to their channel. One or two stores, or one or two cities worth of stores does not a whole chain make. Amazon is going to change these stores, and there may be empty shelves in a few spots while this happens.

DON'T PANIC.
While it clearly wasn't doing well, I can't help but be reminded of a lot of anti-Kmart/Sears sentiment in the media starting five years or so. The company had many problems of its own but the media wasn't helping.
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Re: "Entire Aisles are Empty" @ Whole Foods

Post by lola42 »

mjhale wrote: January 20th, 2018, 7:49 am The thing that I wonder is how you integrate a high end retailer who wasn't afraid to spend money to get money into a company that is all about speed, efficiency and reduction of cost to bring the theoretical best price to the consumer.
You don't.

The Whole Foods of yesteryear is gone. Whether Amazon runs Whole Foods into the ground or makes it into something more popular/profitable remains to be seen. I wonder if Bezos even knows? But one thing is for sure, Whole Foods will morph. Amazon takes risks and moves at mach speed. The traditional grocery industry has never moved at the speed of Tech, and that will be the downfall of many.
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