Amazon Slashed Prices on Whole Foods. Now they shoot up again.

The natural grocery raised prices this month on dozens of Dr. Bronner soap soaps to the Häagen-Dazs ice, according to an email watched by Journal. A separate company email in December listed 550 additional price increases for products, including biscuits, olives and cookies.

Whole foods said in the December email that vendors are charging more for these products because of inflation. The separate price increase this month followed the end of annual contracts to sell about 700 items at low prices, Whole Foods said. These contracts will not be renewed, the chain said, and the increase adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars a week in additional revenue.

Several consumer goods companies included

Procter & Gamble

and

Clorox

, recently raised prices or promised to do so, to compensate for the higher commodity costs and increase profits. Almost half of the 52 consumer goods manufacturers recently examined by the consulting firm Acosta raised prices last year.

Mondelez International

and

Hershey

last month they said they would increase prices this year.

The inflation-based increase in Whole Foods ranges from 1[ads1]0 cents to several dollars, a price list reviewed by Journal shows. Soaps, detergents, oils and nut pots have some of the highest increases. The average increase was 66 cents, according to the list.

Supermarkets have resisted passing the price increases through intensifying competition in their industry. Some begin to relay. California-based

Smart & Final Stores
Inc.,

A grocery store, has received requests from hundreds of vendors to raise prices and expect the costs to continue to rise this year. Some supermarkets also agree to store new brands and sizes that give food producers more profit.

Throughout Foods, a basket of 40 selected items purchased from its stores cost $ 191 last month, according to the Telsey Advisory Group, up more than 3% from what the same basket of goods cost last fall.

On Monday, a spokesman for whole food said that some of the shopping center's suppliers have increased the prices due to higher material, labor and shipping costs. Whole foods have passed some of the increased costs and absorbed the rest, spokeswoman said. The chain stopped selling almost half of 700 products with expiring contracts and initiated new agreements on 100 more, she said. Prices rose by around 50 of the 700 products, she said, adding that Whole Foods is now selling more items, based on customer buying habits.

"We also offer hundreds to thousands of merchandise every day, and we continue to lower prices for all customers and premiers," said the entire food on Monday, referring to Amazon's subscription program.

E-commerce giant began adding discounts to Whole Foods and free, fast delivery from its stores to Prime members last year. Amazon increased premium membership fees 20% to $ 119 in April.

Whole Foods updates discounts for Prime subscribers each week. New discounts for all customers are presented less frequently, showing record.

Some customers said they've noticed higher prices for Whole Foods this year and feel discounted only for Prime members, are unfair.

"I'm no longer likely to go to my local Whole Foods," said Will Armstrong, a 37-year-old San Francisco software developer who is not a premier.

Other customers as membership discounts. Prime campaigns were the main reason why 1,168 buyers surveyed by the Numerator computer company this fall gave to visit Whole Foods more often.

Whole Foods has increased the prices of nine off

Hain Celestial
Inc.s

plant-based dream drinks. Hain, a leading supplier of natural and organic products to Whole Foods, said Thursday that higher costs contributed to unexpected losses in their last quarter.

Michael Bronner, president of California-based Dr. Bronner, said the natural product company is raising the price of soaps it sells to Whole Foods.

Target
Corp.

,

Costco
Corp.

,

Walmart
Inc.

and other dealers by 3%. The prices of the organic coconuts used to make these products have recently increased, says Mr. Bronner and motivates him to transfer the higher costs to the customers.

"People can choose smaller sizes, but they usually return," Bronner said.

Whole foods increase the prices of 18 Dr. Bronner soaps with up to several dollars per item, the merchant's communications program. The prices of some Nature's Way coconut oils also increase by several dollars. A spokeswoman for Nestlé SA, Häagen-Daz's parent company, said list prices have not increased at Whole Foods and the company does not monitor any price increases from dealers.

Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com