[2022-08-25] How Amazon Changed Whole Foods, Five Years Later

How Amazon Changed Whole Foods, Five Years Later

CNBC

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Five years ago, Amazon bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Since then, there’s been a lot of changes, including a new CEO starting Sept. 1. It added a palm-scanning payment option, hundreds of cameras and sensors to enable checkout-free shopping, and a “dark store” devoted entirely to online orders. We tried out the new high-tech shopping experience and take a look at how prices and product selection have changed since Amazon took over the specialty grocer in 2017.

Amazon has opened 60 new locations, including one “dark store” entirely devoted to filling online orders. Yet Whole Foods still controls just over 1% of the grocery market, according to research firm Numerator, compared with Walmart’s 19% and Kroger’s 9%.

Next week, Whole Foods gets a new CEO for the first time since its founding in 1980. Operating chief Jason Buechel steps into the lead role on Sept. 1, succeeding colorful, polarizing co-founder John Mackey, who was once described as a “right-wing hippie.”

“When you have the kind of culture clash that I imagined John Mackey and Amazon had, it’s really impressive that John stayed around in a leadership position as long as he did,” said Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at advertising firm Publicis. “It surprised me.”

Buechel takes over at a pivotal time for Amazon, which is jumping deeper into the world of in-person retail, with a focus on groceries. Revenue at its physical stores climbed 12% in the second quarter, while online sales dropped. That marks a change from the prior few years when Amazon’s physical stores lagged behind the overall retail business. Outside of the food business, Amazon recently shut 68 stores, including all Amazon Books, 4-star, and Pop Up shops.

Watch the video above to find out the key differences between Whole Foods today from the company that Amazon acquired in 2017.

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