Is Whole Foods Becoming More or Less Competitive Under Amazon?

From the very minute it closed the acquisition of the natural grocer, Amazon began repositioning Whole Foods Market. It’s not clear, however, where the store, or even the Whole Foods brand, will end up.

After several highly visible price reductions, which ended up being more temporary in duration, many still view the food retailer as “whole paycheck.” Even Brick Meets Click’s price checks on a basket of goods in January and April show that Whole Foods’ price position remains little changed in the Los Angeles market, for instance. And the most likely reason a Whole Food’ shopper would switch from Instacart to Prime Now today is because they’re already a Prime member and want to receive free two-hour delivery.

Within the past couple of weeks, shoppers are wondering where the deals are going. One shopper asked on Facebook why the in-store monthly coupon booklet was no longer available, with the retailer attributing the booklet’s removal to “environmental stewardship.” The shopper pointed out, however, that this didn’t explain why digital deals were disappearing, too, since they don’t require paper.

It turns out that this shopper sensed what Whole Foods recently shared via email, explaining that on May 1, the rewards program, digital coupons via the app and even on its site, and its mobile shopping app will all be “retired," with no details as what’s to come, other than that exciting perks are coming for Amazon Prime members.

The point is that it’s challenging to understand how everything Amazon is doing with Whole Foods will affect the broader grocery industry. For more insights on the matter, check out this blog I recently posted.