SEATTLE — Amazon has tapped Whole Foods Market chief executive officer Jason Buechel to oversee its grocery business as vice president of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores.
In the expanded role, Buechel will continue to lead Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods and its 540 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom as CEO, but he also now has oversight of 63 Amazon Fresh supermarkets in eight states, 16 Amazon Go cashierless convenience stores in four states and Amazon’s online grocery business. Amazon’s physical store sales totaled $20 billion in its most recently completed fiscal year.
Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, announced Buechel’s appointment in a Jan. 27 company memo.
“Since creating a single WW Grocery Stores organization in 2022, we have made notable progress in our vision to make grocery shopping simpler, faster and more affordable for customers,” Herrington said. “We’ve taken steps to integrate our huge grocery selection across our broader logistics network and create a more seamless experience for customers, especially Prime members. This work will continue under Jason’s leadership.”
Buechel takes over from Tony Hoggett, senior vice president of Worldwide Grocery Stores, who left Amazon last October to become chief operating officer of food delivery startup Wonder, founded by e-commerce entrepreneur Marc Lore.
The expanded duties for Buechel come as Amazon in recent years has revamped its brick-and-mortar grocery operations and business model. The Seattle-based company has closed a number of Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores as part of wider cost-cutting efforts by CEO Andy Jassy; removed its Just Walk Out cashierless checkout technology from Amazon Fresh supermarkets (which now offer the Amazon Dash smart shopping cart); redesigned the Amazon Fresh store format; and last fall began piloting a small-format, quick-trip store in Chicago dubbed Amazon Grocery.
In two other pilots, Amazon is testing an automated micro-fulfillment center at a Whole Foods store in the Philadelphia area that will enable customers to buy products not carried by Whole Foods, while in greater Phoenix the company is testing the ability for customers to shop fresh groceries and Amazon.com products and have them delivered together. Similarly, Amazon has modified 26 Amazon Fresh fulfillment centers to offer an expanded selection, enabling customers to buy Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh and Amazon.com items in one online order.
“I am incredibly energized by our momentum in grocery,” Herrington said. “Our new Grocery Subscription is getting fantastic response from customers. We continue to be focused on great selection and value at Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go. 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.”
Buechel has been Whole Foods’ CEO since September 2022, when he took over from retiring co-founder John Mackey. He previously was COO and has been with the specialty grocer since January 2013, when he joined the company as chief information officer after being a managing director/partner at Accenture. Amazon acquired Whole Foods in a $13.7 billion deal in August 2017.