Amazon is buying Whole Foods Market in $13.7-billion deal

Dropping a bombshell on the US grocery industry, online shopping giant Amazon.com said it agreed to buy Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion in cash. The deal’s announcement instantly sparked a selloff in the stocks of other major US supermarket and big-box chains on expectations that Amazon would bring its low-price expertise and technology prowess to bear with Whole Foods, putting further downward pressure on prices in the already hyper-competitive $611-billion US grocery industry.