Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods is set to close on Monday and the company is wasting no time in making changes. In a press release emailed out this morning, the company is making it a point to make healthy and organic food affordable to everyone. If you’re familiar with Whole Foods you know that their organic food can get rather pricey. Buying organic food, in general, hasn’t been a cheap undertaking for consumers. Price is a big part of the reason many families don’t buy organic food to begin with.
“We’re determined to make healthy and organic food affordable for everyone. Everybody should be able to eat Whole Foods Market quality – we will lower prices without compromising Whole Foods Market’s long-held commitment to the highest standards,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer. “To get started, we’re going to lower prices beginning Monday on a selection of best-selling grocery staples, including Whole Trade organic bananas, responsibly-farmed salmon, organic large brown eggs, animal-welfare-rated 85% lean ground beef, and more. And this is just the beginning – we will make Amazon Prime the customer rewards program at Whole Foods Market and continuously lower prices as we invent together. There is significant work and opportunity ahead, and we’re thrilled to get started.”
“It’s been our mission for 39 years at Whole Foods Market to bring the highest quality food to our customers,” said John Mackey, Whole Foods Market co-founder and CEO. “By working together with Amazon and integrating in several key areas, we can lower prices and double down on that mission and reach more people with Whole Foods Market’s high-quality, natural and organic food. As part of our commitment to quality, we’ll continue to expand our efforts to support and promote local products and suppliers. We can’t wait to start showing customers what’s possible when Whole Foods Market and Amazon innovate together.”
Here’s what will be new in Whole Foods Market stores on Monday and what customers can expect over time as the two companies integrate:
- Starting Monday, Whole Foods Market will offer lower prices on a selection of best-selling staples across its stores, with much more to come. Customers will enjoy lower prices on products like Whole Trade bananas, organic avocados, organic large brown eggs, organic responsibly-farmed salmon and tilapia, organic baby kale and baby lettuce, animal-welfare-rated 85% lean ground beef, creamy and crunchy almond butter, organic Gala and Fuji apples, organic rotisserie chicken, 365 Everyday Value organic butter, and much more.
- In the future, after certain technical integration work is complete, Amazon Prime will become Whole Foods Market’s customer rewards program, providing Prime members with special savings and other in-store benefits.
- Whole Foods Market’s healthy and high-quality private label products–including 365 Everyday Value, Whole Foods Market, Whole Paws and Whole Catch–will be available through Amazon.com, AmazonFresh, Prime Pantry and Prime Now.
- Amazon Lockers will be available in select Whole Foods Market stores. Customers can have products shipped from Amazon.com to their local Whole Foods Market store for pick up or send returns back to Amazon during a trip to the store.
To add to all of that, Amazon and Whole Foods Market technology teams will begin to integrate Amazon Prime into the Whole Foods Market point-of-sale system. Prime members will also get in-store specials and benefits. It certainly sounds like Amazon has a plan to possibly make Whole Foods more accessible to everyone.
What do you think of Amazon’s plan for Whole Foods? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
