Can't say I have strong feelings about whether Whole Foods and Wild Oats are able to merge or not. But I can't believe this is more perilous for Americans than, say, XM and Sirius merging into the ONLY sattelite radio provider in the country, or cable companies being permitted by the FCC to operate regional monopolies, or all the newspapers, radio stations and TV stations in the country being owned by half a dozen men.

Who is watching the watchdogs?!

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What I find funny is that the same FTC had no problem with AT&T buying Bellsouth (my employer). This is the same company that had to be broken up in the 80's.

Personally, I don't mind the Whole Foods buyout. They bought Harry's Farmers Market (which is still called that in Marietta and Alpharetta) and it's just fine. Besides, if I wanted an alternative, I could go to Trader Joe's or Fresh Market, which sometimes I do.

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Agree with the above. The FTC allows other industries to do it. What's their beef with grocery stores?

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i completely disagree with the notion of this merger. Here in Vancouver, we have a local chain called Capers that was bought out by Whole Oats, and they have been hammering away the "local, organic, sustainable" trend and supporting all of these notions. If they merge, it is likely that these stores will be converted to the much more expensive Whole Foods stores, have little touch with the local community and be another mega supermarket. They have said that Capers would be converted into Whole Food markets, or sold, considering how there are some markets in very close proximity to each other.

It's a reality that Whole Foods have some of the most expensive markups among supermarkets, trying to justify it with the "organic" label. And I am very sad to see Capers, our locally-supported supermarket that has grown through local and loyal patronage, die off to a merger & acquisition not even in our own city, province, or country.

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What about the employees of Wild Oats??? They were told months ago about the merger and to this date the employees are still wondering if they will still have a job. Further more, what is the government doing in the middle of two grocery stores trying to sell and buy? Why do they think it is there business? I guess I am just confused. Get this over with and tell the employees if they have a job. Or stop the sale and let Wild Oats get on with business.

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Having shopped at Capers and Whole Foods I really don't think you'll see much difference. When I lived in West Van I never noticed a difference in the ambiance or prices. Whole Foods Canada would indeed buy local products and, hopefully, import wonderful Canadian products to the US. There are cheeses I still miss and I treasure and carefully dole out bits of the Contemporary Seafoods smoked sea salt only in the summer when homegrown tomatoes are ripe. If ONLY they became available at our Whole Foods here in LA!!! Believe me I've asked! But if they discover them for themselves, Katie bar the door!

That said, if you guys can hold onto a local business I applaud the achievement but it sounded like there's already been a sale to an American company.

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It would be a great day when everyone is policed the same... too bad there is an agenda behind everything.

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I've never been in Whole Foods, but I've seen what Wild Oats does when they enter a market by buying the only organic grocer in town. They destroy the original store and move location to a more upscale neighborhood (we have freaking Hummers in the Wild Oats parking lot now!), raise prices and increase packaging and shelf space for agri-business organics.

If Whole Foods wants to buy them out, it won't make any difference to me. Wild Oats lost its soul, if it ever had one.

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