Amazon’s Whole Foods Buy May Mean Big Things Ahead

It came out of left field, this newest development from Amazon; the purchase of Whole Foods seemed alternately like the most obvious solution to a growing problem and a bizarre new move that wouldn’t help much. Amazon buying Whole Foods got a lot of people thinking, though, and we could be looking at a major new operation in the making.

Naturally, the first thing that came to mind is Amazon’s increasing push in the grocery market. It’s not out of line to think that Whole Foods might effectively become an Amazon grocery store, with a little extra push on quality. Some might think that Amazon will lower some of the prices, and maybe some of the quality, a bit; there’s a reason Whole Foods is wryly called “Whole Paycheck”.

The possibility was immediately opened up for Whole Foods to sell non-Whole-Foods-Branded products that would likely cost less. Non-organic food was one of the first possibilities noted, along with further discount options. Plus, Amazon technology would likely be a part of the Whole Foods experience going forward, providing some major new advances for the company.

Perhaps the most immediate possibility not noted was that Whole Foods would provide Amazon with a physical network, the potential to act as a warehousing operation for a variety of drone delivery systems. Granted, Whole Foods recently closed a slate of its stores back in February, but given that it was just nine stores shuttering out of a combined total of 440, there’s still a wide array of locations in place and ready to go.

Using these locations as the necessary groundwork to build warehouse facilities could improve Amazon’s potential for using drone delivery systems, whether it’s for just groceries, or for other small items that Amazon commonly deals in like books, movies and video games. That’s before the notion of complete, prepared meals comes into play.

Amazon has long needed a more physical presence than its current stock of warehouses could provide. By using the Whole Foods store location network as a physical presence, it may be able to fend off the inevitable competition that major box stores like Walmart will pose going forward.