2017Issue5_Alabama_v6

VIEWPOINT

more competitive on price – which is going to have an impact on every traditional grocer that has been able to steal market share from Whole Foods by offering lower-priced organics. Can you imagine what would happen if Whole Foods announced the day after its deal with Amazon has been completed that every Amazon Prime member gets a 5 percent discount there? Whole Foods has been slow and clumsy in its ability to take customer data and translate it into meaningful customer communications that can then translate into sales... but one has to imagine this is low-hanging (organic) fruit for Amazon. They'll fix that fast. Subscribe and Save for Whole Foods products? Ordering via the Echo/Alexa system and Dash buttons? One has to imagine that all this stuff is on the table. And there will be no dithering – just incisive analysis and fast execution…with what at Amazon they call a Bias for Action.

Tom Furphy is absolutely right. Big, traditional, incumbent retailers have to wake up. “Today is Day One,” is the Amazon mantra, and the folks there are moving fast. If you do not have an effective and efficient digital/e-commerce/ automation strategy, you are facing nine miles of bad road. By the way…When I write that traditional retailers have to respond, I'm not just talking about Amazon's specific competitive operations, but also the broader understanding of competitive and consumer realities that Amazon reflects. Because there actually is something going on here that is a lot bigger than Amazon. (If you doubt me, think about it the next time you go to a Circuit City, RadioShack, Blockbuster or Borders.) It also is critical to keep one thing in mind – Jeff Bezos thinks long-term. In doing this deal, he has crystalized in his mind how Whole Foods fits into the Amazon ecosystem in 2020 and beyond.

“The game is changing fast, he said, and traditional grocers simply seem incapable of keeping up – they take too long to make the kinds of decisions they need to make in order to compete effectively.”

The question that traditional retailers in all segments ought to be asking is this: What's next? You can't just sit. You can't wait for something to go bump. But if you do, I can guarantee one thing. You won't like it. Not one little bit. ■

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There may be some Whole Foods customers who will see this acquisition as a negative, but not many, I'd guess…because I'd be willing to bet there is a ton of overlap between Prime members and Whole Foods customers. (Amazon Lockers at Whole Foods stores may be as commonplace as checkout lanes.)

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ALABAMA GROCER |