"Assuming the sale goes through, Amazon will be my landlord," said Steve Bercu, owner of BookPeople in Austin, Tex. BookPeople is across the street from the Whole Foods flagship store, in a building owned by the company. Should Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods occur, Bercu will have to pay rent to a company often seen as the enemy of independent bookstores.
"I have a lease; the lease won't be affected," Bercu continued. "In that sense it doesn't really matter."
Bercu was traveling when news broke on June 16 that Amazon intended to buy Whole Foods. Noting that there had been talk of sales the past two years, Bercu said that it was not a "super big surprise" that Whole Foods would sell, though the news that it would be sold to Amazon did cause some of his staff to get "excited about it a little bit." After Bercu sent out a message to staff members "letting them understand that it doesn't make any difference," things have calmed down in store.
Looking ahead, Bercu has adopted a wait-and-see approach. It remains to be seen whether the sale will go through, and if it does, what exactly Amazon plans to do with Whole Foods. Bercu noted that Amazon may be interested in using existing Whole Foods locations as pick-up centers, which would be significant but could have a greater impact on nonbook bricks-and-mortar retailers. He also pointed out that with the deal drawing so much attention, it may draw interest to Amazon's antitrust issues.
"I've never spent much energy thinking about what they're doing one way or another," said Bercu of Amazon. "I know a lot of people are bent out of shape. I just figure we should do what we do and they can do whatever they do. It seems to have worked for us so far." --Alex Mutter