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Whole Foods hasn't disclosed its reason for shifting to this model, but one key advantage that it could give them is data. Brokers represent multiple brands and work with multiple retailers. Cutting them out of the process means Whole Foods limits the number of people that know what goes on in its stores and who can share that information with others.

Whole Food's parent, Amazon, of course, is a master — and fiercely protective of — its data management.

Doing business with Amazon - even as a small seller - always requires giving away your supplier information. And if what you are doing is profitable enough, they will immediately cut you out and make and sell your product themselves.

It was a genius scam to get thousands of small American companies to share their profitability secrets by offering a (largely false) promise of broad market exposure.