SEATTLE, WA - Last weekend, reports that Amazon had agreed to acquire grocery chain Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion sent stock prices into fits as investors attempted to grapple with the inevitable disruption to the grocery industry.
The online retailer’s stock immediately jumped more than 30 points, raising the company’s market cap by more than $15 billion, and prompting CNBC Analyst Bob Pisani to say that essentially Amazon was acquiring Whole Foods “for free” and pocketing nearly 2 billion in profit.
Others in the brick and mortar grocery industry were not as fortunate. News of the acquisition sent the stocks of rival retailers like Walmart, Kroger, and Costco spiraling.
CNN Money reported Walmart’s stock tumbling five percent on Friday, wiping out nearly $11 billion in the retailer’s market value in one fell swoop.
Kroger and Target stocks dropped nine and ten percent respectively (though Target rebounded to close at only five percent down), SuperValu dropped seventeen percent, and Costco—a company oftentimes thought of as “Amazon-proof”—sank seven percent.
All told, CNN reported that nearly $22 billion of market value disappeared from Amazon’s competitors in the grocery market on Friday.
Monday saw grocery stocks rebounding, according to news source Fox Business, as many investors eyed depreciated grocery stocks as a deal.
AndNowUKnow will continue to report on Amazon’s acquisition and its disruptive effect on the grocery industry.
