Whole Foods stores in Toronto were decked out with signs proclaiming reductions in everything from ground beef to dinner buns Monday, an apparent effort by the new grocer in chief, Jeff Bezos, to shake up the industry and critically, to change the perception of Whole Foods. Who knows where it will go. And while prices have been lowered, they aren’t so low that Whole Foods can’t make money if it can improve traffic. And that may be the key. WF needs more customers. Of course no one knows the secret dreams of the Emperor of Amazon. Does he want to corner the grocery industry? The fear expressed in the media seemed to suggest this is exactly what Bezos wants. Does he have that much money? What about Competition and antitrust law? Time will tell. But Monday we saw the prices of ground beef and Atlantic salmon cut down to what a customer might pay at Loblaw. There are dozens, maybe hundreds of leads at Google News about this story.
