Amazon drops Whole Foods' prices on popular items
Whole Foods started Monday with a slate of lower-than-usual prices on a selection of foods, with some items dropping by 30 percent and one -- Fuji apples -- down by 43 percent.
Bloomberg reported that the Whole Foods on East 57th Street in Manhattan posted price drops on organic avocados, sustainably farmed tilapia and salmon, and almond butter, among other items. The discounts were announced with orange signs saying "Whole Foods + Amazon" and "More to come."
Rotisserie chickens were selling for $9.99 a piece, down from $13.99, and were sold out before 10 a.m. in a Whole Foods in Paramus, New Jersey, according to Recode.
These are the discounted items, according to Bloomberg.
Whole Foods price drops
Amazon moved quickly after Whole Foods shareholders last Wednesday approved the $13.7 billion deal, announcing it would slash prices on beef, salmon and avocados, as well as other favorites. The e-commerce giant has promised to institute further discounts at Whole Foods for members of Amazon Prime, its $99-a-year membership service.
But Amazon's low prices don't extend to all its products. Instead, as a research paper detailed two years ago, Amazon consistently prices the most popular items in a category below its competition's prices while selling less popular items at higher prices.
Shares of competing grocer Kroger (KR) were down 1.1 percent Monday morning, and Wal-Mart (WMT) was down 0.6 percent.