Say goodbye to Whole Paycheck.
True to its word, Amazon stormed its new Whole Foods stores Monday and slashed prices on several popular grocery items.
Customers are seeing price cuts as high as 43 percent on certain items. Bloomberg made a run to a Manhattan store earlier today to report the price changes. It found several items marked with an orange “Whole Foods + Amazon” sign that lists both the old and new price.
Organic fuji apples and bananas were among the most heavily discounted foods. Apples were marked down from $3.49 per pound to just $1.99, while bananas went from $0.79 to $0.49. Guacamole also got a lot cheaper, with avocados dropping from $2.79 to $1.99 each. Even the prices of meats were cut. Organic rotisserie chickens went from $13.99 to $9.99 each, while ground beef was trimmed from $6.99 to $4.99 a pound. Amazon lopped $5.00 per pound off organic salmon filet.
Here’s a full list of discounted items reported by Bloomberg.
Here's how much Amazon is cutting prices on products at Whole Foods https://t.co/sLdpSuBrEw pic.twitter.com/S1dCDfgkfW
— Bloomberg (@business) August 28, 2017
The cuts come days after Amazon promised to reduce the price of foods at its newly acquired organic grocery store. It also said its Prime subscription would become the Whole Foods benefits program, and that members will soon receive special discounts and in-store benefits. The retail giant closed the $13.7 billion purchase earlier today.
Many people praised the acquisition when Amazon announced price cuts, despite initial skepticism when the purchase was first announced in June. People couldn’t hold back from posting their excitement on social media.
https://twitter.com/brrandin/status/902163637795737601
https://twitter.com/TheKitchenista/status/902174748297363457
https://twitter.com/tamboochie/status/901550452906610689
https://twitter.com/THINKiWONT/status/902192059615895553
Me and my mama are running to Whole Foods today! pic.twitter.com/Pykawdbks4
— Dr. Awful, Terrible Negro (@ErbanLady) August 28, 2017
Others are still bitter about the old prices.
https://twitter.com/DaGodfaddah/status/902189502721957888
https://twitter.com/LarsTheWanderer/status/902189297419280385
Some say Amazon isn’t doing enough.
Whole Foods dropped prices up to 50% and they still aren't competitive price-wise with Kroger, Farm Fresh, Food Lion, Wegmans or Publix.
— Cerebral Ballsy (@NerdRat) August 28, 2017
Whole Foods still mad expensive, but this is a start
— Shirley Chisholm (@aNickel4thought) August 28, 2017
Despite a few dozen markdowns, many at Whole Foods say not much is different. "Same ol," said one. "Still expensive." pic.twitter.com/aOxjFIaKdt
— Abha Bhattarai (@abhabhattarai) August 28, 2017
And some folks are understandably waiting for that must-have discount to hit.
All I'm saying is that if the mochi prices at @WholeFoods haven't gone down since the @amazon merger, then it was for nothing.
— Ben Kaufman (@fuckbenkaufman) August 28, 2017
H/T Bloomberg