Amazon Will Morph Whole Foods into Amazon. What Else?
October 31, 2018
File this one under “Duh,” as articulated by Captain Obvious. People are starting to get concerned about the ways in which Whole Foods will change under Amazon’s ownership. While it’s surprising that folks didn’t see the writing on the wall from day one, we can understand why they are so upset after reading the recent Guardian piece, “‘They Want Us to Be Robots’: Whole Foods Workers Fear Amazon Change.”
According to the article:
“The employee explained that under Amazon, Whole Foods workers are expected to do more with restricted labor budgets and often perform duties above their rank without being properly compensated. In addition, his region’s capital expenditure budget has been frozen.”
While it might seem surprising to see a grocery store being run this way, and it certainly doesn’t sound like a fun working environment, this is Amazon’s modus operandi. Look at how they took online shoe seller Zappos and cut it down to a lean, mean machine. This is the tradeoff for efficiency and low prices. The question is: will consumers put up with it. It’s a tricky tightrope, because we all want character and fulfilling jobs, but we also have to look at our family’s bottom line, as well. Amazon is betting that the latter wins out.
Patrick Roland, October 31, 2018
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