AmAzoN happened, that's what.  Reading this article, I didn't get a good feeling that "buying local" was really the point of the new owners of Whole Foods.  Jeff Bezos doesn't give a rat's hat about the locals being able to buy local.  It's all about marketing, and he's gonna get stiffed, as least one can hope he does.  Towards the bottom of the article it tells how Kroger stores already sell more "natural and organic" foods than Whole Foods.  Well, there's nothing "local" about what is now termed "natural" or "organic" because those two terms have been bastardized to the point where they mean nothing at all.  Buying local, to me, means FRESH foods, not boxed or canned foods, for God's sake.  Who would ever think about a boxed food in terms of it being "local"???  That's pure craziness.

At any rate, I think Whole Foods, if they survive, won't ever again be what it was originally intended to be.  I'm glad my town doesn't even have a Whole Foods store because why would I want to pay exorbitant prices for foods that are readily available from our local food co-op?  And I OWN part of the food co-op (that's what a co-op is, of course, member owned) and I know most of the suppliers personally.  It's a lot like an indoor farmer's market, only they still sell boxed and canned junk, too.  But they also sell fresh nuts, freshly ground nut butters, fresh spices and herbs (the herbs are grown locally, for the most part).

https://newfoodeconomy.org/whole-foods-small-supplier-demo-system/

There are, thankfully, a lot of other places to shop.