Amazon is about to change the way America buys food
New York — A price war has raged in US supermarket aisles for well over a year, bloodying retailers big and small. On Monday, Amazon.com plans to toss a smart bomb into the fray. The online giant’s move to slash prices on everything from organic baby kale to fair-trade bananas on the same day its $13.7bn acquisition of Whole Foods Market closes shows the "high-velocity decision making" Amazon founder Jeff Bezos claims as his hallmark. The move sent Kroger, Costco Wholesale and Walmart shares reeling on Thursday. Amazon will also begin selling Whole Foods’ store brands on its site, install Amazon pickup lockers in some locations and meld its Prime program into the upscale grocer’s operations. While this won’t exactly bring responsibly farmed salmon to the masses — after all, Whole Foods stores will remain in high-rent neighbourhoods — the price reductions could draw in curious new shoppers and present brick-and-mortar retailers with a dilemma: do they follow suit and see their margin...
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