Amazon finalizes Whole Foods takeover, promises lower prices starting Monday

Amazon's $14 billion takeover of Whole Foods becomes official on Monday, and both companies say customers can expect lower prices 'on a selection of best-selling grocery staples across its stores' starting that day.

"We're determined to make healthy and organic food affordable for everyone," Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said in a release Thursday. "We will lower prices without compromising Whole Foods Market's long-held commitment to the highest standards."

"We can lower prices and double down on [our] mission and reach more people with Whole Foods Market's high-quality, natural and organic food," Whole Foods CEO John Mackey said.

The company singled out the following items for savings as of next week:

• organic bananas,
• organic avocados,
• organic large brown eggs,
• organic responsibly-farmed salmon and tilapia,
• organic baby kale and baby lettuce,
• animal-welfare-rated 85 per cent lean ground beef,
• creamy and crunchy almond butter,
• organic Gala and Fuji apples,
• organic rotisserie chicken,
• 365 Everyday Value organic butter.

Whole Foods has 431 stores in the U.S., a handful in the U.K. and 13 more in Canada — mainly in Toronto and Vancouver, but also one location in Victoria, and one in Ottawa.

Amazon also said it will begin implementing Amazon Prime into its payment systems in store, and once that's completed Amazon Prime members can expect special savings and in-store benefits.

In addition, the grocer's entire line of private label products will be available for purchase as of Monday on Amazon.com.

More to come