We compared Whole Food prices today to what they were 2 years ago — and what we found shocked us (AMZN)

pulse

September 11, 2017 5:03 PM

Whole Foods' efforts to destroy its "whole paycheck" reputation are finally paying off following its acquisition by Amazon.

The total cost of a 24-item basket of items from the grocery chain dropped by $18.76 over the last two years.

Business Insider compared the prices of 24 items purchased at a Whole Foods in Richmond, Virginia, in November 2015 to the prices of the same 24 items purchased at a location in Durham, North Carolina, in September 2017.

In 2015, the total cost of the basket was $126.66. In 2017, the total cost was $107.90 — a nearly 15% drop.

For comparison, the same 24 items — adjusted to reflect the items' varying sizes — cost $86.08 at a Walmart in Durham, North Carolina, in September 2017.

While there's still a significant difference, Whole Foods has come a long way in catching up to Walmart's low prices in just two years. The 2015 basket was $40.58 more expensive than Walmart's modern prices, while today, buying the same products at Whole Foods costs $21.82 more.

In November 2015, Whole Foods was trying to cut prices amidst growing organic grocery competition from budget retailers. Rivals such as Walmart and Kroger have only expanded their organic options over the last two years, further threatening Whole Foods' dominance and forcing the grocer to find ways to cut prices.

Some of the biggest price cuts only occurred in late August, following the grocery chain's $13.7 billion acquisition by Amazon. Price of bananas, salmon, and Gala apples all dropped the day the acquisition formally went through.

The price cuts are already attracting more customers to Whole Foods. Customer traffic grew 25% in the two days following its acquisition by Amazon, compared to the same period a week earlier, according to Foursquare data, reported Bloomberg.