
Pharmacies take a $10B hit as Amazon lands Whole Foods deal - smaili
http://www.businessinsider.com/cvs-stock-price-gets-whacked-as-amazon-stock-price-surges-2017-6
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codemac
They take a 10B hit.. as amazon buys a company that _doesn 't_ have a
pharmacy?

Not very clear what's going on here.

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CodeWriter23
Putting pharmacies in a store that caters to those seeking health from food
and alternative treatments? Never gonna happen. The Street has its head
extremely far up it's ass today.

The more likely play for Amazon to get into the pharmacy business via an
acquisition is by buying Target.

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copperx
Medications have absolutely nothing to do with food. I am puzzled by your
comment. There are, sure, some anti-vaxxers and alternative health kool-aid
drinkers who shop at Whole Foods, but I'm pretty sure that's like 1% or so of
their clientele.

You can't generalize a target market by the fringe groups that might be part
of it.

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CodeWriter23
That's interesting, my doctor (an MD) prescribes nutrition education. So does
every other doctor in the same healthcare corporation, Healthcare Partners.

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wonder_bread
Would be very curious to see if this is, in fact, a play to get into other
industries via the backdoor by reimaging the whole foods layout. Seems odd on
the surface to pay a premium for a Grocery store with slowing growth at a time
when rivals from across the pond (Aldi and Lidl) seek to gain a foothold in
the market. If anybody has some expertise in gamesmanship and would like to
give their two cents on the deal, that would be nice.

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joveian
No expertise here, but hopefully they aren't planning to do anything major
with the stores. Unless I've seen a really skewed sample, the thing is that
Whole Foods stores are not that large. There just isn't room to add anything
major like a pharmacy at (I'm guessing) most existing locations. While they
could make larger new locations, there must be better options if that was
their primary focus. Even adding Amazon lockers will be tough at many
locations. My guess is that they care most about the grocery aspect.

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rainhacker
Can't read, requires disabling add block or subscription.

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fivestar
The problem with pharmacy is that it is a (an overly) regulated business. That
isn't necessarily something Amazon can easily tackle anymore than anyone else
can. Target has struggled with it for years. Target puts pharmacy management
on the hook for store sales. The result is you end up waiting for your Rx
longer than actually necessary in hopes you will go browse in the store and
buy something.

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nirvdrum
Is that still true? Target switched to using in-store CVS pharmacies.

