• by Sarah Mahoney  @mahoney_sarah, June 30, 2025

Amazon is folding its disparate grocery banners into a single operating unit, expanding roles and collapsing divisions to speed up progress in a category where it still lags. The reorganization, dubbed “One Grocery,” brings together Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go under a centralized leadership team. And it’s a major step toward efficiency from Jason Buecher, Whole Foods Market CEO, who added the title of vice president of worldwide grocery stores back in January.

For the first time, Whole Foods' corporate staff will fall under Amazon’s broader compensation programs.

The move expands the role of Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, currently chief merchandising and marketing officer for Whole Foods. She will now also oversee marketing and merchandising for private brands for the combined grocery portfolio*, while retaining her existing titles.

Business Insider first reported the change after reviewing a leaked internal memo from a meeting where Buechel introduced the staff to the new structure. In response to one question asking about overlap in disparate spending and transaction policies, he called it the kind of bureaucratic quirk that’s “ridiculous,” slowing teams down in decision-making.

He pointed to Amazon’s ongoing effort to flatten hierarchies and kill off bureaucratic friction, referencing an Amazon-wide “Bureaucracy Mailbox” created by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy last fall. “We want to operate like the world’s largest start-up,” Jassy wrote in the original memo, encouraging employees to suggest changes.

A company spokesperson emphasized that the new structure reflects Amazon’s long-term grocery ambitions. “We have a successful and growing grocery business that spans fresh groceries, pantry staples, and everyday household goods, both online and in our stores,” said Lauren Snyder in an email to Marketing Daily. “To make it even easier to collaborate and innovate on behalf of our customers, we’re continuing to unify teams across our grocery brands.”

Despite Amazon’s dominance in many categories, grocery has remained a thorny challenge. Expansion of its Just Walk Out checkout tech has slowed, and Amazon Fresh stores have struggled to scale.

Last month, Jassy reiterated Amazon’s commitment to the category. “I’m very bullish about grocery,” he wrote in a memo to employees, citing $100 billion in gross sales last year from consumables, canned goods, pharmaceutical items, beauty products, and other everyday essentials.

He also noted progress in perishables, citing newer Whole Foods store formats in New York City and a redesigned second generation of Amazon Fresh stores.

*An earlier version misstated her title.