An independent contractor wearing a protective mask and gloves loads Amazon Prime grocery bags into a car outside a Whole Foods Market in Berkeley, California, on October 7, 2020.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Amazon explain The company is testing adding mini-warehouses at Whole Foods Markets on Wednesday to draw more shoppers to its stores and away from other grocery competitors.
The company is building a micro-distribution center attached to a Whole Foods store in the Philadelphia suburb of Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. Once the facility is operational next year, shoppers can order items from Amazon.com and its online grocery service, Amazon Fresh, while browsing Whole Foods and pick them up in-store at checkout.
At a news conference near an Amazon warehouse in Nashville, Anand Varadarajan, who leads Amazon’s product and technology teams for its global grocery business, showed off a model of the completed facility. A small automated warehouse will be installed in Whole Foods stores, where robots will pick up and deliver items such as socks, soda bottles or tennis rackets and place them into bags for shoppers to pick up.
The arrangement would allow shoppers to purchase staple items from brands not sold at Whole Foods Market, such as PepsiCo soda and Kellogg’s cereal, and gain access to Amazon’s vast online catalog.
Amazon said it is looking to “eliminate extra trips to other grocery stores for shoppers.” Statistically, Americans shop at an average of two different grocery stores each week, whether to maximize savings, buy a wider range of products, or take advantage of different promotions at each store A study from April From market research company Drive Research.
“Customers shopping at Whole Foods today are looking for natural and organic products,” Varadarajan said in a speech Wednesday. “However, our data shows that many of them also visit other stores to complete their regular grocery shopping needs. With our micro-fulfillment centers, we can reduce the need for customers to visit different stores or place multiple online orders.”
Amazon has been working for years to gobble up a larger share of the grocery market. This is a category where Americans spend money regularly, more than other verticals like apparel or electronics. But Amazon also faces stiff competition from established players, such as Walmart, hook up and Albertsonsas well as area grocery stores.
In 2017, it paid $13.7 billion for Whole Foods Market, a price more than 10 times higher than what Amazon had paid in any previous deal. It has also launched an increasingly stable grocery offering, including a grocery delivery service and its own supermarket chain, Amazon Fresh, targeting the mass market.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy also said The company has a growing business selling “everyday essentials” such as paper towels, dish soap and other items.
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