Someone counted the number of items with discounts at their local Whole foods and it was only 49. http://www.mouseprint.org/2017/09/04/did-you-fall-for-the-wh...

But the things on discount are the things that everyone gets. Milk, eggs, bananas, etc. I shop at whole foods (it's the only place truly 'near' to me), and the things on discount were just about the things that I always get. So I'm happy, for one.

But 50% of stuff I still get from Costco or Trader Joe's (that requires a forty minute drive).

White label Milk, eggs, and some other stuff has always been price competitive at whole foods... Sometimes I found milk cheaper at whole foods than safeway!

As a milk lover, I find this hard to believe

I've never seen a gallon go for above 2.99(if that) at safeway and never seen one below 3.99(if you're lucky) at whole foods

On milk you may be right. Whole Foods doesn't sell exclusively organic, but they do exclusively sell, e.g., hormone-free products. Whole Foods effectively has a price floor that limits how competitive they can be.

I've found milk and eggs to be sometimes slightly cheaper at Safeway, but they're really bottom-of-the-barrel brands and not something I'd buy anyhow. The brand of non-organic eggs I buy is sold by both WF and Safeway, but WF is consistently <= than Safeway, and there's only one or two brands at Safeway that is cheaper.

But this is pocket change. For higher-priced things, like meats (ground beef, chicken), I find WF's prices to more than make up the difference. Generally, unless Grocery Outlet has a great deal, we just default to buying meat, eggs, dairy, and vegetables at WF when we can. Unfortunately, WF is less convenient for us than Safeway, so we do regularly shop (and pay more for it) at Safeway if we're pressed for time.

Gallon of whole milk was $3.50 at Whole Foods in Berkeley yesterday. A welcome sight indeed. I also noticed butter prices were very discounted so picked up an extra brick.

From one milk lover to another, what's your favorite and additionally best value brand for milk? I haven't recorded my preferences but seem to remember disliking Trader Joe's and being plenty surprised by a value brand or two.

I dunno man, I have seen standard size organic milk carton go for $5.12 at Whole Foods where as 3 standard size Organic milk cartons are $10 plus change at costco. I have shopped at Whole Foods before and after and it has def. got cheaper at key essentials such as - organic egg, organic milk and organic chicken. Now the costs are more in Target/Kroger range.

In CA eggs are about $1.50 at T.J. and $3.00 at W.F. I buy the cheapest eggs. Not sure about comparison at all the other egg types. Cali has some kind of "be not so evil to egg laying chickens" proposition, so I think the lowest level eggs are the same eco/ethical level

To be fair Safeway is also very overpriced...

Marginal improvement if you put in your phone number to get their stupid fake sales. Still an awful shopping experience and not inexpensive either.

Take a look at the wine aisle in Safeway. Every single wine is always on sale. I would not think that is even legal in the US but I guess it must be.

I have to imagine this is part of a larger play for Amazon Fresh. Physical locations around the US acting as mini logistic centers for their Amazon Fresh drivers to pick up orders and/or compile orders.

I can't really imagine Amazon wanting to get into the brick and mortar business, especially in Grocery stores.

I'm concerned about whether their infra can handle it -- part of the reason for the higher prices is to throttle the demand to something manageable without the staff they can afford to run the store. Didn't the rush from this overload them? Can they afford to ramp up for long-term lower prices?

That's probably because (As was alluded to in other threads on HN), most of the price cuts came to low-turnover specialty goods. The $8 bottle of lavender water is now $6.

That's not true at all - the price cuts were to staples like salmon, avocados, ground beef, milk, eggs, bananas, etc...

What about Arugula? That's a staple...

I used to shop at Whole Foods regularly back when they were Fresh Fields in the mid to late 90s. Now I find them just too expensive. Maybe it's just me, because back then, I was feeding a couple of toddlers and now I'm feeding several large eating machines.

Yeah, I think one of the plastic containers of arugula was $.50 cheaper. But it's the organic one, so it depends on whether you normally buy that kind.

Any price cuts on bread, pork, sausage, potatoes, tilapia, tomatoes, onions, leeks, beets, rice, beans? From the '49 discounts' link in this thread, the answer seems to be 'no'.

Vine-ripened tomatoes were cut by $1/lb at my store (from $2.99 to $1.99). The bulk rices all dropped, but I don't remember by how much.

Canned beans were already pretty competitive, don't think any dried ones changed. No change on onions, leeks, beets, pork, or bread that I noticed. Tilapia went down by a couple bucks a pound.

Tilapia was cut.

Amazon buys this companies and they never really seem to work out over time, eg. zappos, diapers. Major grocery chains will just get smarter and more aggressive with pricing.

I was not aware Zappos was not considered a success.

Zappos is a huge success for customer service and returns, but they've been losing marketshare for years. Amazon just wants to show high revenue numbers and mask operating losses. Don't think that Walmart with acquisition of shoebuy is going to sit around and not steal revenue. Too many people think if Amazon buys a company it's going to turn into gold, the only thing that is goldmine is AWS. Whole Foods won't be immune from stiff competition going forward, everybody knows there brand is expensive regardless if they drop prices 25%.

Zappos's CEO gets more eccentric all the time, and the site's search function could use updating, but the selection remains excellent and service is first-rate. We still use them.

Other Amazon acquisitions such as IMDB, Goodreads and Audible seem to be humming along. Kiva, now Amazon Robots, is crushing it. (Little joke there.)