NEW YORK, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- At a store in Columbus Circle, a chic shopping mall in New York, on Monday -- the day when e-commerce giant Amazon officially acquired grocery chain Whole Foods, labels of sales are modified to "Whole Foods+Amazon", amid a whole range of sharp price cuts.
The price of organic bananas plumped from 0.99 U.S. dollars to 0.69 per pound (0.45 kg) and Hass avocado from 2.50 dollars to 1.49 a piece, which are noticeable, especially at Whole Foods Market. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market has more than 460 stores in the United States, Canada and Britain.
All these eyebrow-raising discounts, some of which amounts to 43 percent, come after Amazon strides into the traditional grocery market and pledges to offer lower prices.
In a record-setting deal of 13.7 billion U.S. dollars in June, Amazon.com, Inc. announced the acquisition of Whole Foods Market, which has been under intense pressure from shareholders to improve its financial results, largely due to its premium prices.
"Everybody should be able to eat Whole Foods Market quality -- we will lower prices without compromising Whole Foods Market's long-held commitment to the highest standards," said Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer, in a statement.
"By working together with Amazon and integrating in several key areas, we can lower prices and double down on that mission and reach more people with Whole Foods Market's high quality, natural and organic food," echoed John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market.
The Amazon-Whole Foods marriage punches other grocery sellers, but it also pop up some new sparks in the online-offline retail competition.
Amazon has always been peeping at the retail market. Its aggressive pricing has been mounting pressure over its brick-and-mortar rivals, forcing them to press ahead with innovation.
Earlier this month, Walmart teamed up with Google to offer customers the experience to order its products by voice via Google Assistant, a move analysts said for Walmart to stay competitive in e-commerce.
MERGING TRAFFIC TOWARDS PRIME
The offline market is not just another territory for Amazon to capture. It is also a feeding ground for its Prime members, who can enjoy Amazon Prime services like fast and free shipping, exclusive access to movies and TV shows, ad-free music, unlimited photo storage.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Seattle-based giant said the two companies will begin to "integrate Amazon Prime into the Whole Foods Market point-of-sale system, and when this work is complete, Prime members will receive special savings and in-store benefits."
This, as time goes by, could help increase Amazon's Prime members.
As for Amazon Books, the company has begun selling books since late 2016 in its brick-and-mortar stores at list price for non-Prime users, giving only Prime members the access to unlock the huge shopping benefits.
Coupled with other strategies, including Prime Day sales and a discounted membership fee for people who receive government assistance, its offline business can serve to drive more traffic to its Prime services.
"This is just the beginning," said a statement announcing the closure of Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods.
A single purchase
