Other grocery stocks plummet as Amazon buys Whole Foods for $13.7B

Amazon scared investors away from competing grocery stores today when it acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, Kroger, and more all saw their share prices sink dramatically.

Amazon’s ecommerce empire, sophisticated trucking distribution network, advanced technology, and deep pockets could all help Whole Foods run circles around its old-fashioned rivals.

As of market close today, here’s the grim state of the rest of the grocery industry:

  • Amazon: +2.44% to $987.71
  • Wal-Mart: -4.65% to 75.24
  • Target: -5.16% to $52.61
  • Costco: – 7.19% to $167.11
  • Kroger: -9.24% to $22.29
  • Dollar General: -3.04% to $70.12
  • SuperValu: -14.48% to $3.22
  • Sprouts Market: -6.29% to $21.01
  • Smart & Final Stores: -18.75% to $9.10
  • Weis Markets: -4.75% to $48.50
  • Ingles Markets: -3% to $33.95

After tech octopus Amazon bought a grocery store, you can expect the other grocery stores to acquire or invest in building more tech to try to keep up. It seems Amazon has realized there’s a huge opportunity in owning the staples of the modern world, from AWS servers that run your favorite apps, to Amazon Prime that delivers everything between packaged goods and streaming movies, and now your local fancy grocer.

Image Credit: CNBC via Will Oremus