Amazon has wasted no time in making the most out of its acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017. From slashing grocery prices to offering grocery delivery services, it would appear that the organic food store has had a full Amazon makeover. And now, we may have clues as to what is next for Whole Foods. Per a job posting first spotted by Puget Sound Business Journal, it would appear that the online retail giant is looking to offer a pickup service for both Whole Foods and a “marquee” of other stores.
While a pickup service in and of itself isn’t particularly novel (both Walmart and Kroger offer the same option for its customers), the move would continue to make Whole Foods more accessible to shoppers who might otherwise opt to shop at less expensive and more convenient grocery stores. More importantly, it seems that Amazon’s pickup service might also allow customers to order goods from third-party retailers, and simply use Whole Foods as a pickup spot for a wide variety of items.
The telltale job posting was for a finance manager, who would be tasked with building up the business “from scratch.” But perhaps after realizing that this may have given too much information away to folks like us, the job posting was deleted. The description previously noted that this individual would help to kick off “the Whole Foods delivery and pick-up service on the ultra-fast Prime Now app and enable our Prime customers to shop from a set of marquee third-party retailers.”
Of course, Amazon has been historically tight-lipped on its business plans, and this situation is no different. The ecommerce giant has not yet responded to a request for comment. All the same, it certainly looks as though a pickup option is a logical next step. After all, it’s only been a few weeks since Amazon began offering two-hour grocery delivery from Whole Foods, a service which the company has quickly expanded to reach more areas of the U.S. So if you’re constantly on the lookout for ways to make your grocery runs more efficient, Whole Foods and Amazon may just have your back.
