“Robots, Drones” Mean Mass Layoffs For Whole Foods Employees

Jon Economy

When describing the logic behind Amazon’s blockbuster acquisition of Whole Paycheck Foods, a deal that made the “greedy bastards” over at Jana Partners $400 million richer in just a few months, Credit Suisse analyst Stephen Ju explained that he views this acquisition as “an offensive expansion move to accelerate its progress in the largest consumer spend category. In other words, Amazon is paying roughly 3% of its enterprise value for an improved position in an addressable segment that amounts to ~$1.6 trillion according to the US Dept. of Agriculture’s ERS, especially as progress at Amazon Fresh (in terms of regional rollout) has been admittedly slower than we expected.”
He may be correct in the long-run but in the medium-term, Amazon Foods faces major hurdles, including a significant slowdown in how much Americans spend at food and beverage stores…

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Jun 17, 2017.