A little over a year ago I wrote a post about the possible acquisition of Whole Foods by Amazon. Here’s part of that post:
So I thought it would be fun to make a few predictions as to what Whole Foods would look like a year after the acquisition, and how it would operate. I’ll then revisit this post in a year, and see how my predictions have held up.
Well now that year is up, so I thought it was time to see how well I made out mith my predictions. Here’s the list of those predictions again, and in Bold what actually happened. I also marked each prediction as RIGHT or WRONG.
- I guess my first prediction, already mentioned above, is that the deal will go through. I think Amazon would win any bidding war it got into. This prediction is a big one; if the deal falls through, then this blog post would fit in nicely with the vast majority of my previous posts, it will be completely meaningless. This one obviously came through, but unfortunately it does not change the fact that most of my posts are still meaningless. RIGHT
- There will not be any massive layoffs (greater than 10%) of Whole Foods employees. It’s hard to tell with this one; Amazon workers have been hired to work at Whole Foods, even as the latter firm has been laying off hundreds within its own ranks, tied to in-store marketing positions. But I did not see any mention of large scale layoffs, such as 10% or more. RIGHT
- Whole Foods’ prices will drop on average between 5-10%. Didn’t really happen. There were some price cuts on some Whole Foods branded items, and there were some special pricing deals for Amazon Prime members. But not across the board price cuts, which I had predicted. WRONG
- Whole Foods will develop a significant home delivery service, offering a plan like Prime, that will enable customers to get free home delivery if they are part of Whole Foods Prime. Some store employees would become part of the delivery team, helping Whole Foods to retain its employees. Amazon is now offering free, two-hour delivery of Whole Foods groceries to members of it paid Prime program in about 30 metro areas across the United States. The delivery offer will roll out to all stores this year. Hard to tell if it is old Whole Foods employees who are doing the shopping and delivery, or if it was a whole new set of workers. RIGHT
- Whole Foods stores will also function as distribution warehouses for other goods sold by Amazon. Amazon lockers would be in place at Whole Foods stores, where customers could pick up their Amazon order on a more timely basis. Amazon has begun to sell its devices like Echo in stores and opened up lockers for delivery in certain Whole Foods locations. RIGHT
- Whole Foods will feature an Amazon products boutique within each of its stores, providing customers with the opportunity to learn about and to buy products such as the Kindle and the Echo. See bullet above… RIGHT
- The Whole Foods rewards program will expand to include special offers on Amazon products. The Whole Foods rewards program was dropped; Amazon Prime became Whole Foods Market’s customer rewards program, providing Prime members with special savings and other in-store benefits. WRONG
- Jeff Bezos will go vegan. Oh well, maybe someday… WRONG
- John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods, will not become a billionaire. John Mackey did not become a billionaire, but Jeff Bezos did become the richest person in history. RIGHT
- and looking way down the line, Whole Foods will be the first grocery store on the moon, thanks to Blue Origin, an aerospace manufacturer and spaceflight services company set up by Bezos. It’s not there yet, but it is making progress. WORK IN PROCESS
Final score: six RIGHT, three WRONG, and the jury is still out on the last prediction.
So I guess that’s not too bad, but what’s really bad is that I dod not buy any Amazon stock the day I wrote the blog about the acquisition last year.
The stock price last year on the day I wrote the blog was $992.59 per share; today it closed at $1,829.24. That’s an 84% increase.
A few big investments like that and maybe I can up my annual clothing allowance from $50 to $60.
Borden's Blather 