With the announcement that Amazon.com is purchasing Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, a certain strain of the anti-business Left went into panic mode. It’s the same concern you see every time two large companies merge, amplified by the fact that Whole Foods happens to be particularly popular among people skeptical of corporate power.
It’s a pretty bleak vision of the future: a world where all commerce is controlled by Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com, and Prime memberships are required to gain access to basic necessities. As Slate Magazine apocalyptically warns, “Jeff Bezos wants to take over the world.” How can we be free when even our food supply is controlled by the Amazon empire?
Give People What They Want, or Fail
Of course, all these fears are terribly dramatic and overblown, falling into the classic error that confuses corporate power with government power. While governments can use police and military forces to compel people to behave in a certain way, the only power corporations have in a free market is to offer to buy and sell goods. No one is obliged to do business with them, and they depend entirely on keeping their customers happy.
Businesses are not successful because they lie, cheat, and steal their way to the top. They are successful because they provide goods and services customers want, at prices they are willing to pay. Amazon isn’t successful because Bezos is an evil genius, but because it provides a wealth of easily searchable products, at reasonable prices, with great customer service, delivered in a matter of hours to your home.
Think about how amazing that is. It’s a business model that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. There’s nothing sinister about vastly improving the shopping experience for people all over the world.
Likewise, Whole Foods achieved its status by providing an exceptional service unavailable anywhere else. People wanted fresh, high-quality groceries in a pleasant shopping environment, and John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods, gave it to them. Why should anyone complain about that?
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