So this one blew me away. Amazon just bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. There may have been hints that we could have seen something like this happening. In a previous blog, I talked about the Amazon Go Store in Seattle where you can go grab your food item, like a sandwich or an apple, and walk right out of the store and they will charge your Amazon Prime account.

So my real shock might have just been in the speed in which they pulled the trigger on a deal the size of this one. This acquisition says a lot of things about Amazon’s ambitious plans to me. First off, I see a much deeper connection between e-commerce retail and in-person retail being formed. Also, they will obviously have more physical locations than just the Seattle stores.

But I think the biggest takeaway from this will be the convenience factor. I’ve spoken previously about Amazon being the kings and queens of removing friction from the e-commerce experience. They were the first big platform to introduce the one button check out. They are now primed to introduce the ease of convenience that they brought to e-commerce to the food, and, more specifically, the health food industry.

What has previously been a chore for many, going to the grocery store when you are tired, is now potentially removed. Specifically on the non-perishable item side of things, Amazon and Whole Foods together can absolutely be a force to be reckoned with here. They will have the systems and the infrastructure in place to make one of the very few things Amazon did not have before, fresh groceries, wildly available and can be delivered in a way to preserve freshness and flavor.

I’m super excited by the ramifications of this deal. This could be a major game changer in the e-commerce and grocery delivery spaces.

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