WHOLE FOODS DISCOUNTS FOR AMAZON PRIME?
E-commerce giant Amazon plans to offer new discounts at Whole Foods stores for members of its Amazon Prime subscription service, according to media reports.
Cable news channel CNBC, citing unnamed sources, reported that Amazon’s plans call for giving Prime members an extra 10 percent off discounted food items and other products at Whole Foods stores. In some markets, Prime members are already eligible for other perks, including free delivery of Whole Foods products.
The new perks “will give Amazon vendors, many of which are niche and small, special access to Amazon’s vast shopper base,” CNBC reported.
Austin-based Whole Foods Market did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the American-Statesman Wednesday.
Whole Foods previously said that it would end its rewards program May 2 and that “a change is coming.” The rewards program is expected to be folded into the Amazon Prime system. Amazon has also installed shipping lockers in Whole Foods stores that allow customers to pick up packages they ordered from Amazon’s website.
Amazon acquired Whole Foods last year in a $13.7 billion deal that shook up the grocery industry.
Born in 1978 with a single store on Lamar Boulevard, Whole Foods became an iconic Austin business and success story, growing to more than 480 stores and about 89,000 employees and helping reshape the grocery industry.
In addition to its purchase of Whole Foods, Amazon has grown its presence in Central Texas in other ways in the past few years.
In 2015, the Seattle-based company opened a corporate office at the Domain mixed-use development in North Austin, where it occupies about 250,000 square feet of office space. Employee headcount there has grown from about 350 to more than 900 the past year, Amazon told the American-Statesman.
In 2016, Amazon opened an 855,000-square-foot distribution center in San Marcos, where the company says it employs more than 2,500 people.