Amazon acquires Whole Foods

In a rather surprising move, Amazon acquired Whole Foods, although its own Prime Pantry store for Prime members began to operate only three years ago. On the other hand, Whole Foods entered the market back in 1980. Now, this brand is a super-chain with 431 markets open in the US.

The value of the deal is $13.7 billion and, once the acquisition became public, Whole Foods' closing share gained no less than 27 percent in value (last Thursday). For now, the Whole Foods chain continues to operate without any changes, but things might change in the long run. The deal is expected to close by the end of this year's second half.

In addition to Prime Pantry, Amazon also tries to cover local deliveries of fresh goods via the Amazon Fresh local grocery delivery service. Even more, Amazon also operates a few brick and mortar stores known as Amazon Go. Once the acquisition of Whole Foods closes and the chain becomes a part of Amazon, we expect to see a lot of interesting changes. However, we have to wait a few months until Amazon decides to reveal its plans for the Whole Foods chains.