Whole Foods Gets a Makeover
Your organic, gluten-free, soy-free, cage-free groceries just got a little bit cheaper. On Amazon’s first day taking over Whole Foods, they cut prices up to 43 percent on certain items. “Price was the largest barrier to Whole Foods’ customers,” said Mark Baum, a senior vice president at the Food Marketing Institute, an industry group. “Amazon has demonstrated that it is willing to invest to dominate the categories that it decides to compete in. Food retailers of all sizes need to look really hard at their pricing strategies, and maybe find some funding sources to build a war chest.” Decreased prices weren’t just limited to Whole Foods products – Amazon Echos were also on sale in stores for just $99.00. Industry rivals, like Wal-Mart and Costco, will have to adjust and continue to maintain low prices if they hope to compete with Whole Foods’ new business model. (Source: Bloomberg Tech)
The New Face of Uber
Uber’s board of directors officially extended an offer to Dara Khosrowshahi, the current CEO of Expedia, to take over the company after Kalanick’s departure. Born in Iran in 1969, Khosrowshahi emigrated to the U.S. after the Iranian Revolution and grew up in New York. With an electrical engineering degree from Brown University, he worked for multiple companies until he ended up at USA Networks (now IAC), which later acquired a majority stake in Expedia. Khosrowshahi’s public political position (he recently criticized the president’s reaction to Charlottesville) starkly contrasts that of Uber, which was previously associated with the presidency. Hopefully the new face of Uber can transform the company and get them back on the road. (Source: TechCrunch)
The Old Taylor Can’t Come to the Phone Right Now
Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated music video for “Look What You Made Me Do” premiered at the MTV Video Music Awards last night. From bathing in a tub of diamonds to sitting on a throne of snakes, the pop singer stunned fans with her dark transformation. The video featured indirect (and oftentimes direct) jabs at her critics, specifically Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. The highlight of the video was at the end when Reputation Taylor stood on top of a mountain of old Taylors, signifying her shift from innocent to edgy. Taylor Swift’s single racked up 184,589 downloads since its debut Thursday night, and her music video already broke the record for the most-watched lyric video within 24 hours at 23.5 million views and counting. Fool Taylor once, shame on you. Fool Taylor twice, still shame on you. (Source: Variety)
