Whole Foods Market is raising prices on many of its items, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The WSJ reported that suppliers are raising prices, due to increases in packaging, ingredient and transportation costs, labor and copious products, causing the price hike to trickle down to consumers. According to the WSJ, an internal report showed that the natural grocers raised their prices on upwards of 550 products, anywhere from 10 cents to several dollars, causing the product prices for consumers to increase by 66 cents on average.
The WSJ noted that this increase comes after Amazon dropped prices in 2017, hoping to counter Whole Foods' pricey reputation.The WSJ cites a spokeswoman from Whole Foods Market, who said the company has absorbed much of the cost from the rise of prices in production. She added that Whole Foods is going to put more items on sale based off of customer purchases.
This may provide an opportunity for independent grocers, even those subject to the same price increases. The WSJ quoted Will Armstrong, a software developer from San Francisco, CA, as saying that he is now unlikely to go to Whole Foods: He and other customers, the WSJ says, feel that discounts exclusively for Prime members are unfair.