An independent contractor wearing a protective mask and gloves loads Amazon Prime shopping bags into a car outside a Whole Foods Market on October 7, 2020 in Berkeley, California.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Amazon announced Wednesday that it is testing adding mini-warehouses to Whole Foods supermarkets as part of an effort to draw more shoppers to its stores, away from other grocery store competitors.
The company is building a micro-fulfillment center attached to a Whole Foods store in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Once the facility is operational sometime next year, shoppers will be able to browse Whole Foods while ordering products from Amazon’s website or online grocery service AmazonFresh, and then pick them up at the store at checkout. It will be.
At a press event held near an Amazon warehouse in Nashville, Anand Varadarajan, who leads product and technology teams for Amazon’s global grocery business, showed off a mock-up of what the completed facility would look like. did. Small automated warehouses will be bolted into Whole Foods stores, where robots will pick up items like socks, soda bottles and tennis rackets, carry them, and bag them for shoppers to pick up.
The deal will allow shoppers to buy staples from brands not available at Whole Foods Market, such as Pepsi soda and Kellogg’s cereal, as well as take advantage of Amazon’s vast online catalog of products.
Amazon said it aims to “eliminate redundant shopping” for shoppers at other grocery stores. According to an April study by market research firm Drive Research, the average American spends his days every week looking to maximize cost savings, shop from a wider range of products, or take advantage of different promotions at each store. shopping at two different grocery stores.
“Customers shopping at Whole Foods Market today are looking for natural and organic products,” Varadarajan said in a presentation Wednesday. “However, our data shows that many of our customers also visit additional stores to complete their regular grocery shopping needs. , reducing the need for customers to visit separate stores or place multiple online orders.
Amazon has been trying to grab a bigger share of the grocery market for years. This is a category in which Americans spend money more often than other areas such as clothing or electronics. However, Amazon also faces stiff competition from established players such as: walmart, kroger and albertsonsalong with local grocery stores.
In 2017, the company spent $13.7 billion to acquire Whole Foods, more than 10 times what Amazon paid in previous deals. It also continues to expand its grocery offerings, including grocery delivery services and its own mass-market supermarket chain, Amazon Fresh.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also said the company is seeing growth in its business selling “everyday necessities” such as paper towels and dish soap.
