Who is Whole Foods Market?
Whole Foods Market was founded in 1978 by John Mackey and his girlfriend at the time Renee Lawson Hardy, as a small natural foods store in Austin, Texas. The company is best known for its for its organic foods.
At the time of its founding, Whole Foods had only 19 workers and 10,500 square feet of office space. But as Americans’ appetite for organic foods continued to grow steadily, the company began acquiring organic food stores around the country.
Whole Foods went on to become the biggest natural-foods chain in the United States, while building its brand on healthy eating and fresh, local meats and produce.
However, as organic foods continued to become the mantra of consumers, the company was squeezed by lower-cost grocery competitors. Big retailers like Kroger and Walmart also started playing catch-up.
Eventually, Whole Foods was scooped up by Amazon.com Inc in a $13.7 billion cash transaction.
Amazon Acquisitions
Amazon, the owner of Whole Foods, has disrupted a huge variety of industries since it was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 as an online bookstore based out of his garage in Seattle. The company has revolutionized shopping and e-commerce as we know it.
Today, Amazon is one of the top 5 most valuable companies in the world, thanks to its vast investments in cloud computing, fresh food delivery, movie production, consumer electronics and more.
Bezos has also put his money in space travel, artificial intelligence, and newspaper publishing. In addition, the Amazon founder and chief executive officer currently has a net worth of over $108 billion, earning him the title of the world’s richest person.
That said, here are the most notable acquisitions Amazon has done so far.
- LOVEFiLM International for $312 million in 2011
- Chip maker Annapurna Labs for $370 million in 2015
- Quidsifor $500 million in 2011
- com for $580 million in 2017
- Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012
- Video game platform Twitch Interactive for $970 million in 2014
- Digital health start-up PillPack for $1 billion in 2018
- Shoe retailer Zappos for $1.2 billion in 2009
- Smart doorbell system Ring for $1.2 billion in 2018
- Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion in 2017
Future Outlook of Whole Foods/Amazon
It is now nearly two and half years since Amazon acquired Whole Foods.
Amazon’s plans on Whole Foods started becoming clearer in February 2018, after it announced that Amazon Prime Now members in Virginia, Austin, Cincinnati, and Dallas could order groceries from Whole Foods and have them delivered within two hours of placing the order, for free.
Amazon later expanded the delivery of groceries from Whole Foods to other cities such as Houston, Minneapolis, San Antonio, Indianapolis, and Chicago. Prime subscribers in these major U.S. cities are now able to order seafood, flowers, fresh meat and most of the items stocked in their local Whole Foods stores.
The move is likely to have far-reaching consequences in the future once the company starts to roll out fast deliveries from other Whole Foods stores across the globe, thus raising consumer expectations and forcing other grocers to begin offering the same kind of service as well.
Whole Foods Stock Price
Shares of Amazon have been a fantastic investment since the Seattle-based company acquired Whole Foods. Along with crushing the market over the long term, the stock has outperformed over the past few years.
Analysts believe there are even better times ahead for Amazon as it works to make grocery business a big part of its future growth. While Amazon shares continue to climb, this was not always the case. As previously stated, its beginnings were a tiny bit more humble. Let us now discuss the basics of buying Amazon shares.
Steps to buy Whole Foods Stock via Amazon
Amazon shares are listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol AMZN. You can buy Amazon shares within seconds via your PC or smartphone. There are three easy steps to follow if you want to buy the shares:
Step 1: Pick a broker
If you are new to investing and you would like to buy shares of Amazon, the first thing you need to do is to choose a broker. Here’s is Warrior Trader’s best brokerages to narrow down your picks.
Step 2: Decide how many shares
Investors need to remember that they can buy partial shares of Amazon stocks, too. And, of course, it is always advisable to put your money in what you can afford to lose. Therefore, it is important to check the current price of Amazon shares and choose an amount that is appropriate for you.
Step 3: Buy shares
The exact process of buying Amazon shares will vary depending on your broker. However, you will probably have to choose between a “limit” or “market” order.
A limit order is a request to buy at a specific price only, or better while a market order is a request to buy as soon as possible at the best price. Successfully completed the steps above? Congratulations! You now own Amazon shares.
Final Thoughts
Amazon has been working effortlessly to make Whole Foods competitive on price. This has not been easy and it is clear that things aren’t likely to go exactly as the company planned considering the grocery space is a very competitive one.
However, shares of the company are expected to remain a favorite among investors in coming years as Bezos and his team continue to revolutionize online shopping and the cloud industry. Some people may think it is too late to make money off of Amazon, but it could still be your turn.