Whole Foods Just Became A Whole Lot Cheaper In The UK

If you've ever shopped in Whole Foods, you'll know how alarmingly easy it is to end up forking out a week's wages on the extortionate but all-too-tempting salad bar and overpriced vegan ice cream.

Well, this common nightmare could soon become a thing of the past, as the upmarket American grocery store has slashed its prices in its UK stores from today. The move comes after the chain was taken over by Amazon in a £10.7 billion deal, with today marking its first day of full ownership.

Pleasingly, prices were slashed by as much as a third in the company's UK stores, the Telegraph reported. Whole Foods has nine UK stores, including seven London branches – in Camden, Clapham Junction, Fulham, Kensington, Piccadilly Circus, Richmond and Stoke Newington – one in Cheltenham and another in Glasgow. The rest of the aspirational brand's 465 shops are in the US and Canada.

Some of the biggest price cuts reported so far in the UK have been on everyday essentials. The price of bananas has fallen by 33% from £1.79 per kg to £1.20 and organic tomatoes have become 31% cheaper, dropping to £2.40 from £3.49 per kg.

The chain's high-quality meat has also reduced in price, with organic beef steak mince now costing £3.99 for 380g, down from £5.89. Capestone organic whole free-range chickens are now 18% cheaper at £6.50 per kg instead of £7.99 – great news for anyone looking to buy meat more sustainably.

Evidence of the Amazon takeover has already popped up in Whole Foods stores, with the e-commerce behemoth adding its logo onto signs and Amazon Echo voice-assistant devices being set up by entrances, the Evening Standard reported. It's thought that customers will ultimately be able to buy Whole Foods items from Amazon online and be able to pick up – and return – online orders at lockers in some stores.

While the price cuts are great news for many of us, we're guessing UK supermarkets are less pleased as their share prices look set to suffer. Hey, at least we won't need to take out a loan to afford our favourite guacamole anymore.