Whole Foods, then a whole industry? Amazon sinks teeth into supermarkets

Jeff Bezos’s purchase of the organic food chain is a clear sign that the UK’s big grocers will soon be in the fight of their lives

Now the UK supermarkets know Amazon is coming – probably. The biggest and most frightening beast in the retail jungle has signalled it is serious about the grocery business. Jeff Bezos’s monster is making its largest ever acquisition by paying $13.7bn (£10.7bn) to buy Whole Foods Market in the US.

The only mild consolation is that the main action is taking place on the other side of the Atlantic and that Whole Foods’ store portfolio in the UK runs to only nine outlets. But, on the generally reliable principle that global domination of a market is usually Bezos’s goal, UK supermarkets will fear a proper scrap once Amazon has overhauled Whole Foods.

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from Mergers and acquisitions | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2rsFMS0