Amazon buys Whole Foods

I have no idea what this means right now, but I know that in a year or two we will all acknowledge that this will be important in some way. How we as consumers get our food goes a long way to determine what food we get and that seems like a pretty big deal to me.

What blows me away about all this, though, is the reaction. I’m willing to acknowledge my own naïveté in this arena. but this news only became public yesterday and there are hundreds of news stories about it available on the web by early Saturday afternoon, as I’m writing this.  The list below is a really fast and highly edited compilation of what I was able to find and copy in about 20 minutes.  Articles from Bloomberg and the NYT don’t surprise me (although the NYT has close to 20 separate published articles right now) but Mother Jones? Al Jazeera? GQ? CNET? BBC News? Vanity Fair?!?  All I can saw is wow!  Who knew that Amazon, or Whole Foods, or both could attract that kind of attention.

The Economist – An industry shudders as Amazon buys Whole Foods for $13.7bn

Bloomberg – Amazon to Acquire Whole Foods for $133.7 billion

NYT – Amazon to Buy Whole Foods for $13.4 Billion

Reuters – Amazon to buy Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, wielding online might in brick-and-mortar world

NYT – Rooted in Counterculture, Whole Foods’ Founder Finds an Unlikely Refuge

Bloomberg – Amazon Puts Restaurant Industry on Notice

NPR – After The Amazon Deal: What Will Shopping At Whole Foods Feel Like?

NYT – In Whole Foods, Bezos Gets a Sustainably Sourced Guinea Pig

Time – How Whole Foods Got So Big

Mother Jones – Amazon Plans to Buy Whole Foods. Here’s What You Need to Know.

CNET – Amazon’s Whole Foods buy may usher in the store of the future

Forbes – The 9 Reasons Why Amazon Buying Whole Foods Is A Good Idea

CNBC – Whole Foods stock rockets 28% on $13.7 billion Amazon takeover deal

LA Times – Amazon is buying more than Whole Foods — it’s getting 460 stores it can turn into warehouses and showrooms

Forbes – How Amazon Will Democratize Whole Foods

The Atlantic – Why Amazon Bought Whole Foods

Money Magazine – Why Amazon’s Whole Foods Purchase Will Make Groceries Cheaper for Everyone

Fortune – Whole Foods Sells to Amazon to Shake Off ‘Greedy Bastard’ Activists

Fox Business – Amazon’s Whole Foods deal could spark bidding war

GQ Magazine – Amazon Is Acquiring Whole Foods Because It Is Hungry…for Your Data

Al Jazeera – Amazon shakes up retail with $13.7bn Whole Foods deal

Telegraph – The Whole story: What is Whole Foods and how did Amazon come to buy it?

Harvard Business Review – Amazon, Whole Foods, and the Future of the (Old) New Economy

Daily Mail – Amazon’s new Whole Foods acquisition wipes BILLIONS off the value of other retailers’ stocks

Financial Times – Consumer staples stumble on sentiment data, Amazon-Whole Foods deal

Barrons – Whole Foods: I Guess Those Amazon Rumors Weren’t Rumors

Slate Magazine – Amazon’s Whole Foods Purchase Isn’t Just About Groceries. It’s About Everything.

BBC News – Amazon to buy Whole Foods for $13.7bn

Time – The Most Ridiculously Funny Reactions to Amazon Buying Whole Foods

Vanity Fair – Amazon Hurtles Toward World Domination with Massive $13.7 Billion Deal for Whole Foods

Huff Post – Amazon Is Buying Whole Foods In A Quest To Beat Walmart With Luxury