Whole Foods Antitrust Analysis

Summary: Antitrust concerns have been raised after Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Democrats in particular have asked how the purchase may affect consumers who have limited food shopping options -- antitrust concerns are part of their political agenda. Whole Foods is expecting to close the deal during the second half of 2017 and many analysts speak of benefits that would come from this deal such as lower prices and delivery innovations; they also state that Amazon would still face competition from other major retailers such as Target and Walmart. The concerns have mainly stemmed from the various effects of consolidating other U.S. businesses such as airlines and banking. Amazon is planning on resubmitting paperwork to the

Online shopping offers convenience and ease that many consumers prefer over going out to a store and physically purchasing a good. It is intriguing to see that a store like Amazon would be looking to get involved in the supermarket industry, and as Stephen King once said, “I like Amazon as much as anyone, I guess, but leave food prep to the people who understand it and do it well. That would be Blue Apron.” I would still prefer to buy my groceries at a supermarket, but it will be interesting to see how the merger works out for both Amazon and Whole Foods. I do share the same fear as the Democrats in that it is worrying that Amazon could become a monopoly in the supermarket industry since it is a very likely possibility. I also worry about what it will mean for families who rely on stores like Whole Foods only to have that taken away from large online corporations. There have been other mergers of companies that were much more costly than $13.7 billion. Bell Atlantic and Vodafone combined to found Verizon Wireless -- it went on to become one of the biggest phone service companies in the U.S. One of the biggest mergers was AOL 's acquisition of the Time Warner company in 2000 -- it was a total $164 billion. The merger with Whole Foods will definitely be beneficial for Amazon because it is expanding to a whole new industry and will appeal to a different crowd. I hope that the effects on consumers will not be major and that Amazon will not face any