I am Not Happy with the Amazon/Whole Foods Deal

Will Prime members be safe from runaway shopping carts?

The topic for today's piece, I have been sitting on for about a week. I have taken a lot of time to process how this particular thing has made me feel, and I finally think I am ready to put it out in the ether.

A week or so ago it was announced that Jeff Bezos and Amazon had purchased Whole Foods. A lot of people seemed to take this news and just accept it. I know that having groceries delivered happened in the past, remember Webvan, and it is making a small comeback right now. I know that a lot of people actually need this as an option, i.e,, the elderly, singles and others. I know that it sounds like a great thing that will make people's personal calendars more open. It all sounds very nice

Yet this Amazon/Whole Foods deal has been nagging at me for over a week. In fact, this whole thing really pisses me off and I think we are becoming way too reliant on technology. That may sound hypocritical for a writer on a website to say, but we are way too needy as a society, and our phones and computers are consuming us. Not a day goes by where I take my kids to the playground, swimming, riding bikes, playing sports, whatever we may do, and the majority of parents are sitting on a bench staring at their phones. I purposefully keep my phone in my car, unless pictures will be taken, because I want to see the joy on my kids faces when they go down a slide for the first time, or when they are on a swing or when they learn to swim or when they get their first hit or score their first goal or touchdown or basket. I want to be present when this stuff happens. But, more times than not, the majority of parents I personally see are nose deep in their devices.

I think Amazon and Jeff Bezos realize this, so they pounced when the opportunity to purchase a wildly popular grocery store chain came about. I blame Amazon most for this, but I get why they did it. Rich people want to be richer, just look at the assholes in D.C. right now, so buying something that will make them more money is what they strive to do.

I'm worried for our future for a couple of reasons though. First off, I genuinely enjoy going to the grocery store, especially with my kids. On Mondays, this is our outing. We go to a few different grocery stores to get everything we need. The drive to the stores is a great time to listen to music and dance, talk about superheroes, talk about toys, whatever my kids want to do on the ride, that is what we do. Then, when we get to the store, my 5 year old loves to help out. I have him get canned goods for me. I let him pick out whatever fruit he wants for the week. My daughter enjoys sitting in the cart and people watching. At the stores, we chit chat about the stuff we didn't talk about on the ride. My son would tell me about everything that happened at preschool when we'd go to the store on days I couldn't get there in the early morning. As I said, my daughter loves to people watch, and she sees so many people at the stores. And when she sees other babies, it is like she is making a new friend on every trip. I love going to the store with my kids. I love the time to talk and bond that we get in the 2 hours that we grocery shop. I love letting them pick things out and tell me random, nonsensical stories. It is so much fun, and I don't want to lose that feeling. I think the purchasing of Whole Foods by Amazon could take that away from me. That is reason number one why this pisses me off so much. Don't take this away from me. I will find other ways, believe me I have plenty of other activities where we communicate, but please don't take away my local grocery store trips. Please don't let this destroy local grocery store chains.

My second, and final reason that this scares, but also pisses me off even more, is the reliance on technology that I mentioned earlier. We are so god damn lazy as a society now. You mean to tell me that people can't take an hour or 2 to head to the store and shop once a week? Hell, I know some people that only go grocery shopping once a month. Why do these people need their groceries delivered? Going to the store is such an easy task, and you get to look and touch and feel and even taste the food you are about to purchase. With groceries being delivered, you just look at a picture, click on it, and the food will show up at your door in a day or 2. That may sound nice to some people, but to me, it seems like we are turning into the people from "Wall-E" or "Idiocracy".

Look at what happened to the people in "Wall-E". They became so reliant on technology that their arms and legs were super tiny because their stomachs were so big, and they rode around on pod like structures. When Jeff Garlin's character finally gets up and can barely walk because he has gotten so poorly out of shape, that was as sad as almost anything else in that awesome movie. That movie was very telling of how poorly things can go if we rely on technology to such a severe degree. That was a dystopia. I don't want to live in that world. 

Next we have the "Idiocracy" comparison. The fact that we can just point and click at something on a screen is definitely going to dumb us all down. We could just all be mute shut ins if we can just point and click. That doesn't take any real intelligence. You don't even have to really know how to read. As long as you can recognize bacon or cheese or any food stuff, just point and click. Not only does this make us dumber, it makes us lazier. If this is the way it is going to be, how long until we actually have a show called, "Ouch! My Balls", or a movie winning Oscars called "Ass"? Not too far in my opinion.

I really dislike this whole thing. It bothers me very much. I hate that it could take away quality time from me and my kids. I hate that the rich, big time people are trying to take local stores away from people. I hate that this is making the rich even richer. This is a nightmare for me. There is nothing but bad outcomes from this. It may sound nice right now, but in the long run, I think it is a terrible, terrible move. This stinks, and my only hope is that there is more people like me out there that truly like going to the store.

Don't take away my local grocery store Amazon. Don't piss me off anymore than you already have.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He has written a spec script for a film called "Ass". Hollywood can call Ty on his rotary phone, and make sure to dust off your Oscar shelf.

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