At Whole Foods, it’s Day One — of Amazon ownership.
Amazon officially owns Whole Foods and is slashing prices by as much as 43 percent
Amazon is already making changes at Whole Foods.
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.
The e-commerce giant celebrated the close of its Whole Foods acquisition with an Amazon Echo display inside the high-end grocery stores and price cuts on produce of as much as 43 percent.
Inside the Whole Foods in Paramus, N.J., a display of Amazon Echo and Echo Dot speakers greeted shoppers as they entered the store. The Echos were flanked by signs that touted “Whole Foods + Amazon” with a “Farm Fresh!” tagline that would make the creators of HBO’s “Silicon Valley” proud.
Last week, Amazon said it would cut the prices of some Whole Foods bestsellers and those discounts were on display on Monday. Amazon reduced the price of Organic Fuji Apples by 43 percent — from $3.49 a pound to $1.99.
Prices of Organic Gala Apples fell 33 percent to $1.99 a pound while non-GMO large eggs were on sale for $2.99, down from $3.49. Discounts on rotisserie chickens — which weren’t yet on display at 8 am ET — ranged from 11 percent to 29 percent.
The pricing strategy of discounting bestsellers is not new to Amazon. The company has been known to price most aggressively on popular items, so it builds a reputation of having the lowest prices. This allows it to make margin on long-tail items if it so chooses.
It’ll be interesting to watch how much of the price reductions Amazon absorbs versus passing on to suppliers.
One thing that Amazon isn’t pushing yet inside Whole Foods stores: Amazon Prime. But you can bet that is in the works, especially since Amazon said it will eventually offer special discounts and perks at Whole Foods for members of the $99-a-year program.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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