Grocery union claims Amazon’s $13.7B Whole Foods acquisition will hurt consumers and workers

Date: 17 Jul 2017 | posted in: Media Coverage, Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

GeekWire – July 17, 2017

Written by Nat Levy

United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, an organization that represents more than 1 million retail workers across the U.S., has come out with criticisms of Amazon’s $13.7 billion deal to buy Whole Foods Market, saying that the deal could hurt customers and workers and lead to significant automation of jobs.

In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, UFCW President Marc Perrone called Amazon an “online retail monopoly” and argued that “the scope and weight of Amazon’s digital reach poses a severe and constant economic threat to consumers, retailers, and especially grocers, irrespective of whether they’re located online or are traditional brick-and-mortar stores.”

Amazon declined to comment. …

We urge you to consider, for example, the facts of Amazon’s growing unfair scope and reach:

  • According to a 2016 report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, half of all online shopping searches start directly on Amazon.
  • That same report states that within five years, 20 percent of the U.S.’s $3.6 trillion retail market will have shifted online, and Amazon is on track to capture two-thirds of that share.
  • Additionally, a report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners last week estimated total U.S. Prime membership at 85 million, which is up 35 percent from the year-ago quarter and double from two years ago.
  • CIRP also noted that 63 percent of U.S.-based Amazon customers are Prime members.

In terms of impact, Amazon arguably poses a greater threat to our retail economy than any other online or traditional brick and mortar grocer. Again, we urge each commissioner to consider the following impacts:

Read the full story here.

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Nick Stumo-Langer

Nick Stumo-Langer was Communications Manager at ILSR working for all five initiatives. He ran ILSR's Facebook and Twitter profiles and builds relationships with reporters. He is an alumnus of St. Olaf College and animated by the concerns of monopoly power across our economy.