Amazon is shaking up its grocery strategy, expanding the role of Whole Foods Market CEO Jason Buechel to oversee all of its grocery operations, including Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go. The move signals Amazon’s continued push to strengthen its position in the highly competitive fresh food sector.
At the same time, a separate development is shaking up Amazon’s grocery business from the ground up: Workers at a Philadelphia Whole Foods Market have voted to unionize—the first successful effort at any Amazon-owned store. The vote marks a significant moment for the company, which has long resisted unionization efforts across its warehouse and delivery networks, as well as at Whole Foods.
Buechel, who has been with Whole Foods since 2013, was chief operating officer before being promoted to CEO in 2022.
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In his new role, he will add oversight of Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go and Grocery Partnerships while maintaining leadership of Whole Foods.
“In his time as CEO, Jason has unlocked our ability to make high-quality natural and organic groceries more affordable and accessible to customers, helping WFM achieve record sales growth and expand to over 535 locations,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of worldwide Amazon stores, in the announcement.
Buechel, who will report to Herrington, will continue to better integrate groceries and logistics.
For all Amazon’s ecommerce clout, it still hasn’t cracked the grocery riddle and has had little success in becoming a dominant force in fresh food.
It recently eliminated Just Walk Out technology in Amazon Fresh grocery stores, closed some locations, and paused others. There have been layoffs, and Amazon shuttered Fresh Pickup stores, an experiment in drive-through formats.
But Andy Jassy, the company’s CEO, continues to be bullish on grocery’s potential for Amazon. He has told investors he believes it to be a significant growth area for the Seattle-based company.
“I am incredibly energized by our momentum in grocery,” said Herrington in the announcement. “Our new Grocery Subscription is getting a fantastic response from customers. We’re getting great feedback on our new and redesigned Amazon Fresh stores. We’re also excited by new experiments, like in Phoenix, where customers can shop tens of thousands of grocery items—including fresh groceries—alongside millions of Amazon.com products and have them delivered, together, in hours.”
Despite those successes, Amazon’s workforce has become increasingly unhappy with working conditions, and in a first, workers at a Philadelphia Whole Foods voted to unionize.
Amazon is already fighting increasing efforts to unionize on other fronts, including some warehouse operations and delivery drivers.
“We are incredibly proud of the Whole Foods workers who have stood up to Amazon’s union-busting tactics and demonstrated the strength of solidarity,” said Wendell Young IV, president of the local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. “This fight is far from over, but today’s victory is an important step forward. We are ready to bring Whole Foods to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair first contract that reflects the workers’ needs and priorities.”