Darien Whole Foods, Company To Be Acquired By Amazon For Billions

NEW YORK, NY — Online sales juggernaut Amazon will acquire the upmarket grocer Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, the companies announced Friday morning.

“Millions of people love Whole Foods Market because they offer the best natural and organic foods, and they make it fun to eat healthy,” said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. “Whole Foods Market has been satisfying, delighting and nourishing customers for nearly four decades – they’re doing an amazing job and we want that to continue.”

Amazon will acquire the grocery store chain and its debt outright. (For more national stories, subscribe to the Across America Patch and receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Whole Foods has nine locations in Connecticut, including one on Ledge Road in Darien.

Since it came on the scene in the 1990s, Amazon has expanded rapidly and shifted the course of retail. With an inventory originally limited to books, Amazon's business has expanded over the decades its reach to include into nearly every consumer good that can be shipped. In recent years, Amazon has shown an interest in entering the grocery market and experimenting in brick-and-mortar locations. Bezos personally bought the Washington Post in 2013.

John Mackie, Whole Foods' CEO and co-founder, stressed the benefits of the sale to the company's shareholders, who still have to approve the deal.

“This partnership presents an opportunity to maximize value for Whole Foods Market’s shareholders, while at the same time extending our mission and bringing the highest quality, experience, convenience and innovation to our customers,” he said.

— By CODY FENWICK (Patch National Staff)