Once a pioneer of the organic foods movement, Whole Foods has more recently struggled to shed its image as too pricey, too upscale
and too out-of-touch with customers who want more natural foods at more affordable prices.
Armed with giant warehouses, shopper data, the latest technology
and nearly endless funds — and now with Whole Foods’ hundreds of physical stores — Amazon is poised to reshape an $800 billion grocery market that is already undergoing many changes.
Amazon recently began to creep into an important part of Walmart’s turf — low-income customers — when it slashed the price of its Amazon Prime
membership for people with electronic benefits transfer cards, which people on food stamps and other government assistance programs use.
“This shows that online is going to be very dominant in the grocery business —
and very quickly,” said Errol Schweizer, a former Whole Foods executive.
Amazon Deal for Whole Foods Starts a Supermarket War -
By RACHEL ABRAMS and JULIE CRESWELLJUNE 16, 2017
Shares of Walmart, Target, Kroger and Costco, the largest grocery retailers, all tumbled on Friday.
Kroger and Albertsons have bulked up their organic offerings, and organic food has been one of the strongest areas of growth in the grocery business: Last month, the Organic Trade Association announced
that sales of organics had increased by 8.4 percent to $43.3 billion, or more than 5 percent of grocery sales.
Aldi plans to invest $3.4 billion to grow from 1,600 stores to 2,500 stores by 2022, while Lidl,
which recently opened a handful of locations, plans to operate 100 by the middle of next year.