Amazon Gobbles Up Austin-Based Whole Foods for $13.5 Billion

I have to admit I didn’t see this one coming. But when the biggest online retailer in the world (with a voracious appetite) happens to notice that a high-end chain of stores like Austin-based Whole Foods has lost 50% of its value since 2013, somehow for Jeff Bezos that was just plain tempting.

So what’s this going to mean for Whole Foods stores? Hard to say at this point. But Amazon’s initial attempts to crack the food delivery market have been underwhelming. So with over 400 Whole Foods stores around the country, the obvious carrot is the increased ease of distribution and delivery for Amazon to its millions of customers.

However, that may have to entail some cost cutting at notoriously pricey Whole Foods to keep the delivered items competitive. This may subtly or not so subtly impact the corporate culture of Whole Foods. We shall see. But I don’t anticipate too much change at the Austin stores, at least not in the short term.