Whole Foods raises prices on hundreds of items

Whole Foods plans to raise prices on hundreds of items, going away from its pledge to offer lower prices.

The chain’s owner, Amazon Inc., said raising costs for packaging, transportation and ingredients for suppliers, is causing them to charge higher prices to Whole Foods, who has no choice but to pass those increases onto consumers, according to an internal memo acquired by the Wall Street Journal.

In it, Whole Foods said price increases would occur this month after the expiration of annual contracts to sell about 700 products at low prices.

There were no fresh produce items listed in the story, as consumer product goods companies were named as having raised prices.

The average price increase is 66 cents, according to a story by Fortune.

Whole Foods said in a statement to Fortune “that it’s seen increased costs from suppliers due to ‘materials, labor and transportation, and we’ve absorbed much of the inflation.’ It argues that many prices ‘have also decreased.’”

Since Amazon bought Whole Foods in the summer of 2017, retail observers have been waiting for a big market shake up, but it just hasn’t happened.