USA Today – June 16, 2017
Written by Roger Yu, Zlati Meyer, and Elizabeth Weise
Amazon’s offer to buy Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion could usher in a new phase of retail, with the potential for hybrid stores and an increasingly fluid sense of where goods come from and how they get to consumers.
“What we’re seeing today is the evolution of retail. This is a shot across the bow,” said Robert Hetu, a research director for retail technology with Gartner.
In buying Whole Foods, Amazon suddenly comes into more than 450 physical stores in prime retail locations among upscale buyers, giving it tremendous options in terms of building out in a market it’s been eyeing for years. …
Too much power for Amazon?
Some feel the move will make Amazon too big. The New America Foundation believes Amazon already wields too much power over America’s markets for books and music and could worsen the already severe damage it feels the company is doing to America’s competitive, open market system.
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance called for regulators to block to deal based on Amazon’s expanding reach and impacts.
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