Amazon Just Made Shopping at Whole Foods Cheaper (businessinsider.com) 248
Whole Foods just got less expensive. From a report: On Monday, the day that Amazon's $13.7 billion acquisition of the grocer went through, prices on certain Whole Foods items immediately dropped. On Friday, Business Insider visited a Whole Foods location in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and checked the prices on 15 items (including a few variations on similar items) mentioned by the companies. The total cost of the basket on Friday -- pre-acquisition -- was $97.76. On Monday, we returned to the Gowanus Whole Foods and checked back in on the same items. This time, the total cost of the 15 items was $75.85. That's a nearly 23% drop in the total cost. Whole Trade Banana: 30 cents (Price dropped to $0.49 a pound from $0.79). Lean Ground Beef: $2 (Price dropped to $4.99 a pound from $6.99). Local Grass-Fed 85% Lean Ground Beef: $4 (Price dropped to $6.99 a pound from $10.99). Four-pack of Organic Avocado: $0 (Price stayed at $6.99 for a pack of four). Hass Avocados: $1.01 (Price dropped to $1.49 each from $2.50) for instance.
Lower prices, at first. (Score:2, Insightful)
That's the siren song of growing monopolies - economies of scale let them lower prices significantly below the competition... at least until the competition crumbles.
Tech news? (Score:4, Insightful)
I missed the part in the article where it mentioned the new technologies they are utilizing to achieve this price reduction.
Do we really need grocery store slashvertisements?
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I missed the part in the article where it mentioned the new technologies they are utilizing to achieve this price reduction.
Do we really need grocery store slashvertisements?
They did mention the technique of sampling the particular products Amazon/Whole Foods announced as becoming cheaper. That's some mighty impressive new biased sampling technology.
Re: Tech news? (Score:2)
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I missed the part in the article where it mentioned the new technologies they are utilizing to achieve this price reduction.
You can buy an Amazon Dot [amzn.to] to go with your avocado dip.
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I bet he's shoveled down a few bags of corn chips smothered in gallons of avocado dip in his day.
I don't like avocado. I prefer French onion dip instead. Back in the day being 30+ years ago.
I'm sure it was all part of his healthy low-carb diet of vanilla lattes, powerbars, and cottage cheese, too.
Pork skins have zero carbs.
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Yes, and I imagine that you use that fact to justify eating them by the bucket full.
One serving (1/2-ounce) per day. After five years, I'm tired of eating them.
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Is that the before or after picture? [quoracdn.net]
A picture from ten years ago when I did weight training for a year, bulked up from 2XL to 4XL, and I couldn't find any 4XL shirts at the stores. Today I prefer to wear a 2XL shirt even though I could wear an XL shirt, but people would complain about it being too tight across my chest..
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Fat weak guys who say they need to eat more to get strong are hilarious.
I was eating 4,000-calories per day during that year. Too. Much. Hamburger. Meh.
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Or Die from a Massive Coronary!
So I've been told would happen by the time I was [10|20|30|40]-years-old. I haven't had heart issues in 30+ years. Being on a low-carb diet for over five years has significantly reduced my chances for diabetes. This is the same diet that my father went on and he went off insulin six months later.
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According to your logic, San Fransisco shouldn't have to prepare for that next big earthquake, since it hasn't happened yet in 10-20-30-40 years.
The reasons why I'm not at risk for heart disease is because I diet, exercise and take care of myself. People take one look at me and pass judgment without ever bother to find out if they were justified. It's easy to preach gloom and doom out of ignorance.
Boy am I glad you've risen to your level of incompetence and your employer wisely chose to limit your radius of destruction.
I was going to ask if you were stupid but this second sentence erased all doubts.
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>Do we really need grocery store slashvertisements?
One of the biggest tech companies on the planet that literally revolutionized online buying has moved into grocery space and decides to cut prices dramatically for a "premium" market segment and you don't think there's a tech interest angle there?
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A five percent yearly increase in prices is supposed to be good for the economy.
You may have misheard that. The Fed targets 2% inflation, not 5. Prices would double every 15 years at 5% which is more than a little unhappy. 2% sees a doubling only every 36 which is a bit more reasonable.
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Reduction in prices means that people will increase consumption, and I suspect that there are a lot of people in a country who could benefit from eating better. This is a country with over a third of the population being obese,
Whole Foods was extremely overpriced before, IMO. (Score:2)
No. Whole Foods was extremely overpriced before, in my opinion. There are many shoppers who don't care about spending money, but they want their food to be "Whole". Wouldn't want to eat Half Food!
For example, there are women who don't like their husbands, but their husbands make a lot of money. Since the two don't talk much, they don't talk about money.
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Re:Lower prices, at first. (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, I'm expecting (fearing) that all the data and computing fire-power will be used for surge pricing, sooner or later. The stockholders would love it.
They hardly pay taxes where I live, but they do use all our infrastructure, our legal system, benefit from policing etc. etc. so, like Starbucks and the others, they're not my favourite company.
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please send us some of your consumer protection.
- united states
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Re:Lower prices, at first. (Score:5, Insightful)
Total tax rate for average person in the US is lower than most European countries... but not by much.
VAT obviously higher than Sales Tax over here but made up in other ways.
But what do Europeans get for slightly more taxes?
Public Healthcare (lower infant mortality, fewer chronic diseases and high expected lifespan).
Clean-efficient public transport.
More parks and public spaces in urban areas.
All schools properly funded, not just ones in areas with wealthy residents.
Lots... lots... more...
I'd trade slightly higher taxes if it meant the perks that you get in Europe... ... of course, higher taxes in the US means more money to spend on the military, not on anything useful.
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That just shows your lack of understanding as to how the US works.
Taxes in New York are considerably higher than taxes in say, Texas.
When it comes to taxes, the US is more like a group of countries than it is a single country. So while the total tax rate in someplace like California will be much higher other locations like Oklahoma will have a total tax rate much lower.
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That just shows your lack of understanding as to how Europe works.
Taxes in Belgium are considerably higher than taxes in say, Latvia.
When i
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It's all finagled so that someone is always making out.
In Texas, property tax is high and income tax is nil. This is all part of the default upper class scheme to charge as much regressive tax (usually property and sales tax) as possible so they can pay as little income tax as possible.
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To clarify, it's actually probably the upper middle class. Everyone knows the upper class doesn't make regular income.
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You say that like it's a bad thing. (I'm mostly being serious.. As much as I personally hate usage-based taxes, something like a base vehicle tax + tax for mileage driven seems like it would be better to keep roads/bridges in shape.. But if I want to stay in my house and not go out, paying as little taxes as possible seems reaso
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The general interpretation of things like sales tax and property tax is that the lower middle class is much more likely to spend most of their money on groceries and their home than the upper class. I.e., there's a minimum amount of money you have to spend on these things, and the lower middle class spends a larger portion of their income on them. Someone who is wealthy and is still paycheck to paycheck is doing something terribly wrong.
Moreover, I would imagine that the upper middle class benefits far mo
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in actuality, it puts the burden on the lower middle class, as these types of things often do.
Sales and property tax are as impactful as whatever percentage of your income you spend on groceries and your house. Who do you think is more likely to spend 90% of their income on groceries and their home, the lower middle class, or the upper class?
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Total tax rate for average person in the US is lower than most European countries... but not by much.
A recent report [chicagofed.org] from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago that compares tax rates in the US and Germany shows that the difference is quite a bit more than "not by much". By almost any measure of tax burden (other than corporate taxes), Americans have a significantly lower tax burden.
As always, there is no free lunch (unless someone else is paying for it).
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Everyone pays. Not just someone else. Well everyone that's not rich, and everyone that's not a corporation.
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Eh, every grocery store has had "loss leader" products to get people in the door since forever. Milk and eggs aren't anywhere near that cheap, no?
Thanks for the list... we might start dropping by Whore Foods for b-a-n-a-n-a-s, but nothing else looks too compelling yet... I usually draw the line for meats at $3/lb., though that's been since the late 90s so I really ought to update that for inflation.
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Not here, but Grocery Outlet seems to be the cheapest place to get milk. I think there used to be price controls in CA until a few years ago, but now at GO, a gallon of milk is a bit over $2, at least a buck less than at more well known grocery stores.
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Also, I'm expecting (fearing) that all the data and computing fire-power will be used for surge pricing, sooner or later. The stockholders would love it.
Even in the US, that won't necessarily be legal. Price gouging, especially for things like food and water during a natural disaster, is generally frowned upon.
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Also, I'm expecting (fearing) that all the data and computing fire-power will be used for surge pricing,
What is there to fear about surge pricing? I have no problem with it.
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Without surge pricing, the first batch of people to get to the store buy up all the supplies, and then there's empty shelves and no one else gets anything.
With surge pricing, if you really, really need that can of soup it will be there for you to purchase.
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Not exactly surge pricing, sort of the opposite.. but e.g. Safeway apparently does data-mining of what I buy, and very very often gives me deals _on stuff I buy anyway_ that's cheaper than the regular sale prices. (Other stores also do 'deals for you', but I haven't personally used any that as frequently gave me deals on things I bought.)
I'm all for that,
Re:Lower prices, at first. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, it is. Specifically monopolies are one of the oldest and best-understood failings of the free market. As soon as you drive the competition out of business, there's no longer a free market, and you reap the rewards of being the only provider. Meanwhile no new competition arises, because everyone knows that the minute they enter the market the monopolist can drop prices long enough to drive you out of business, so trying to compete is just an exercise in throwing away your startup investment, which could have been better spent entering a market not dominated by a monopolist.
Capitalism and the free market are social technologies, not holy edicts. Only a fool ignores their very real failings while clinging to an idealized fantasy.
Amazon won't be a monopoly (Score:2, Insightful)
That's the siren song of growing monopolies - economies of scale let them lower prices significantly below the competition... at least until the competition crumbles.
Amazon is not and probably never will be a monopoly anymore than Walmart is currently. They might be able to set prices in some markets that others follow but they'll (probably) never have so much pricing power that they can drive all competition out of the market. Even Walmart has never been able to drive Target and many others out of business. Not everyone competes on price. Nobody shops at Nordstroms because they are bargain hunting. I'm sure Amazon will drive some marginal competitors out but I don
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You may find this [twimg.com] to be interesting. Amazon can't put them all out of business, but they can certainly make them all feel some pain.
Granted Wal-Mart and Target don't truly target the same people, and Amazon will be it's own niche, but it can certainly reduce those companies' profitability considerably.
Pain isn't bad (Score:2, Informative)
Amazon can't put them all out of business, but they can certainly make them all feel some pain.
You say that like it's a bad thing. Amazon is forcing other companies to improve just like Walmart did and others before them. As long as it is to the benefit of people like you and me then bring on the pain.
Granted Wal-Mart and Target don't truly target the same people, and Amazon will be it's own niche, but it can certainly reduce those companies' profitability considerably.
There is a heck of a lot of overlap and any reduction in their profitability is only to the benefit of you and me most likely. Amazon is going to go head to head with Walmart in a big way. The largest threat to Amazon is probably Walmart getting their Internet sales up to Amazon's level. Combined w
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This is an image by someone that doesn't understand the stock market. Market capitalization is something completely different from market share. Market cap is just how much it would take to buy all the shares of a company at the current market price. If some idiot bought Joe's general store in the middle of nowhere for 1 trillion dollars, you would have the same picture except that Joe's would now take up half the picture. A quick peek at the most recent income statement of Wal Mart and Amazon shows Amazon
Mod parent up to +10. Okay, 5. (Score:3)
Amazon gross revenue, 2016 [nasdaq.com]: $135.99 billion.
Walmart gross revenue, 2016 [nasdaq.com]: $485.87 billion.
Just loss leaders? (Score:2)
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This has lead to significant quality and customer service issues, which has in turn lead to people not seeing the point of spending money on products.
They have always had quite a bit of leeway on products. They tend to have very good values on staples whole grain, eggs, honey, but charge a lot more on the junk fo
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They tend to have very good values on staples whole grain, eggs, honey
Not the ones around here. The staples aren't outrageously priced, but they are still more expensive than equivalent products purchased pretty much anywhere else.
That's impressive (Score:5, Interesting)
They're now within one order of magnitude of the prices at Publix.
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Re:That's impressive (Score:4, Informative)
I was just thinking I bought a 6lb pack of 90/10 ground beef at Sams for less than $3.30 a pound, so I fail to see the value in these incredible savings.
Sams meat tends to be artificially lower than what you're really getting. I found that meat from Sams tends to shrink dramatically when you cook it because it is pumped full of water. Some of that $3.30 per pound your paying goes to nothing but water.
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I was just thinking I bought a 6lb pack of 90/10 ground beef at Sams for less than $3.30 a pound, so I fail to see the value in these incredible savings.
Sams meat tends to be artificially lower than what you're really getting. I found that meat from Sams tends to shrink dramatically when you cook it because it is pumped full of water. Some of that $3.30 per pound your paying goes to nothing but water.
Even if it is, unless it is 1/3 water you are still getting it for cheaper than what whole foods is selling it for (at the discounted price even). Plus, since we already took that 6 lbs (and it was actually less, I rounded up) and spread it out into 12 portions and froze them, losing some of that weight makes the portions even smaller which helps with weight control. And there is no taste difference between that ground beef and ground beef in fresh packs from Kroger or Publix (the only taste difference I'
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Considering I can stand there and watch them cut and package it, you'd think this extra step would be more obvious...
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Eh, anon, you don't get it do you.
Its one issue if the nutrition information is fudged. Its another if the nutrition information is correct, but also the only way to gauge how much water/salt is added.
Assuming of course ground beef == ground beef, and we aren't talking minced meat versus ground beef.
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Not the same product (Score:2)
I was just thinking I bought a 6lb pack of 90/10 ground beef at Sams for less than $3.30 a pound, so I fail to see the value in these incredible savings.
I do. Not all ground beef is the same. Criticize Whole Foods prices if you like but it's hard to argue that the quality of their meat (and most other) products isn't also better than Sam's in most cases. Whether it is worth the price difference is a different question but you aren't comparing identical products. It is unlikely your package of Sam's ground beef was organic nor is it likely to be of the highest quality. I've bought plenty of meat from Sam's in years gone by and it's fine but it's not as
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Careful... ABC just paid $100,000,000 for talking about "pink slime" on the air.
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Ah, that feeling when you went for "Funny" and ended up with "Insightful" and "Interesting".
Destructive fascist capitalism (Score:2, Funny)
These low prices are destructive and will have consequences. If food is this cheap, people won't see the value in socialism and won't unite against capitalist organizations like Amazon.
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Re:Destructive fascist capitalism (Score:5, Insightful)
If food is this cheap, people won't see the value in socialism...
Oh? Well in that case, I suppose the government should stop subsidizing farmers. What's that? You dont know shit about agriculture? Oh my.
Re:Destructive fascist capitalism (Score:4, Insightful)
Great (Score:2)
proves the point about Whole Foods (Score:2)
So a supermarket just lowered its prices... (Score:2)
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the world's largest provider of cloud computing services makes a major acquisition and you don't think it's tech news?
Maybe it is news, albeit old news. But this article is not about cloud computing. It is about a supermarket lowering prices. How is that tech news? When does Amazon stop becoming a tech company, and when does it become a retailer? imo, that transition is nearly complete.
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The acquisition completed today. It's quite interesting to see what Amazon is going to do, and how quickly they will implement the changes.
On to problem #2 (Score:2)
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But what are they going to do about stupid people who think organic food is better and gluten is going to kill them?
Why would you need to do anything about them? As a retailer, their job is to exploit customer irrationality for profit.
Aside: the anti-gluten crusade actually has utility for anyone who needs to avoid wheat products. Wheat, especially wheat bran, gives me digestive difficulty. While I'm pretty sure the issue is not gluten, "gluten-free" is a good proxy for "does not contain wheat"
Alas, much "gluten-free" food contains copious amounts of dairy products, which is another food type I have trouble with.
Unlike other dealers... (Score:2)
...the first taste isn't free.
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Could someone explain avocados to me? Do they have some sort of magical nutritional value? I don't dislike them... though eating them sometimes makes me nauseated. But there's a lot of other stuff I enjoy that other people seem to consider "gross". I always assumed people ate avocados because they were big and cheap and plentiful, and you can't dip everything in just salsa and sour cream ALL the time. Still, never thought guacamole was good enough to warrant charging extra for.
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Could someone explain avocados to me?
Avocados are the iPhones of the grocery world. For those who cannon afford avocados, watermelons are the Android equivalent.
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[...] the last time he ate a fruit was about 40 years ago.
Not true. I had ketchup on my cheeseburger last night.
Since then, it's power bars and other sugar-and-fat laden processed bullshit that he's deluded himself into thinking are "health" foods.
Never mind that I lost ten pounds and wearing smaller sized pants.
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Also, as I mentioned in my own reply, bodybuilders and fitness minded folk latched on to the idea of mixing one in their protein powder drinks. It's a natural thickener and gives it the consistency of a malt.
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You're supposed to let them ripen, and eat them right away. They don't hold up well once they're sliced into a salad, for example. I ate a salad with avocado that I had prepared a day before, and the texture of the avocado was gross, like eating a green slug.
Now I make my salad ahead of time, but I put in a half avocado covered in cling wrap, then I slice it when I eat the salad.
Re:becomes K-Mart (Score:4, Informative)
I eat them because they're delicious.
However, it's pretty hard to find good ones. Avocados are everywhere. Avocados that are worth eating are harder to find when they're in season, and impossible to find out of season.
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Some things apparently need to be fresh and regional.
And avocados are strenuously one of those things. They also have a lot of variation between types. As with a lot of produce (tomatoes, bananas, etc.), the ones that appear in the store -- particularly in the off-season or in stores that are far from where they are grown -- are selected because they store and ship well, but they're usually pretty awful to eat.
This seems to be particularly true of avocados. Tomatoes used to be the clearest example of the problem, but I think avocados show the problem even mor
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Put a ripe avocado on a slice of rye bread, sprinkle some salt and pepper on it. The result is far superior to a buttered bread, at least for me.
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The biggest selling points:
Heart healthy fats
Helps reduces cholesterol
Helps in weight loss
Protein Powder, milk, and half an avocado gives you a healthy milk shake. (And, no, you don't taste the avocado.)
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(And, no, you don't taste the avocado.)
But then all you're going to taste is that nasty protein powder. That's hardly a selling point!
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Nah, it'll still be "Whole Paycheck". $7.00 for 4 avacados? Oh, organic avacados.
Has WF changed lately? The times I've been in one it was all the packaged food with "organic" on the boxes and cans. In the actual produce section there was a small "conventionally grown" sign under all but a very small selection.
Re:What kind of strategy is this? (Score:4, Informative)
I understand that Amazon hasn't been profitable for a while. Why would a company with such an ugly statistic slash prices this much? I do not get it!
Given how utterly fucked up your entire premise is [recode.net], I bet there are a LOT of things you "do not get", mostly related to reality.
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I understand that Amazon hasn't been profitable for a while. Why would a company with such an ugly statistic slash prices this much? I do not get it!
They were not profitable for a long time due to re-investing their profits into growing their business. It's not like they are Sears with rapidly declining sales vs fixed costs.
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Amazon is as profitable as they want to be. Anyone who's paid even the slightest attention knows that their growth has been funded pretty much from the beginning by pumping any excess money (AKA potential profit) back into the company. They could have pulled off enormous profits quite some time ago, if they wanted to.
Long term thinking (Score:2)
I understand that Amazon hasn't been profitable for a while. Why would a company with such an ugly statistic slash prices this much? I do not get it!
Because Amazon doesn't chase quarterly profits they can actually do things that benefit the company in the long run. They manage expectations of shareholders and have since they went public. Amazon "isn't profitable" because they reinvest in the company to grow rather than trying to maximize quarterly profits for shareholders who don't give a crap about 10 years from now. They can slash prices because they don't have to feed the earnings monster and can do things to grow Whole Foods in the long term. In
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Um, the AC is right... see the film industry... no movie ever makes a profit if they can help it. Don't ever accept payment in terms of % of profits, there aren't any after Hollywood accounting is done dishing out various production fees and expenses to various shell companies linked to the producers.
US companies are about building and growing brand recognition and mindshare... intangible intellectual property that you can just sit at the top and rake in the dough for other people's work.
Amazon itself is
Re:Environment, people and animals (Score:5, Funny)
"Whole Trade Banana: 30 cents, Lean Ground Beef: $2 - that can't be good for neither the environment nor the people nor the animals.
Much better: buy locally produced stuffed"
OK, I'll buy locally produced bananas in Montana, good advice, Sir.
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Re:Environment, people and animals (Score:5, Funny)
"Whole Trade Banana: 30 cents, Lean Ground Beef: $2 - that can't be good for neither the environment nor the people nor the animals.
Much better: buy locally produced stuffed"
OK, I'll buy locally produced bananas in Montana, good advice, Sir.
Sorry. No banana for you! Local Produce only.
You live in Montana, you're only allowed to eat potatoes and cabbages and things that grow locally. At least you get to eat beef. People in New York City have to eat pigeons.
Re:Environment, people and animals (Score:5, Funny)
People in New York City have to eat pigeons.
I believe they're called organic free-range squab there. Only high-end restaurants carry them.
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What, you never heard of Banana Montana [youtube.com]?
Re:Environment, people and animals (Score:4, Insightful)
Or, buy the cheapest you can find, because price is intrinsically linked to the number and extent of median processes and it costs less to fly bananas to countries than it does to try to heat greenhouses to grow them in that country.
And then give the difference to Greenpeace or whatever. Or use it to plant your own garden.
Just because you want to save the planet, doesn't mean you need to be a hippie living in a tree.
Not so simple (Score:2)
Much better: buy locally produced stuffed, pay fair prices, eat less meat.
Locally produced is not always better nor is it always more environmentally friendly. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. It's also not always cheaper or better for the economy in general. Buying local isn't a bad thing but it isn't the cure all many pretend it is either. Not to mention the fact that a lot of locations don't produce a wide variety of foods locally. Good luck buying locally grown mangoes in Idaho.
Fair prices? That's such an open ended concept that it's hard to know where to start.
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Thirty-five dollars worth of bananas is barely an appetizer for minions.
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and that's a lot of bananas!
Are bananas an add-on item now?
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