Amazon is rolling out a new backroom system at a local Whole Foods Market that could redefine the chain’s natural-food image by adding more mainstream food options, writes Owen Tucker-Smith for The Wall Street Journal.
The Plymouth Meeting store may be among the first to deploy ShopBots, robots designed to retrieve items like Doritos, Tide Pods, and Pepsi from the backroom for shoppers seeking choices beyond Whole Foods’ typical natural-focused items it usually offers.
The new feature is an experiment being implemented by a team of Amazon and Whole Foods staff, who are exploring ways to bring a wider range of groceries to customers while maintaining the 45-year-old brand, known for strict ingredient standards.
Under the initiative, shoppers can find natural items like prebiotic sodas free of GMOs and artificial colors on the shelves, while using an Amazon app to request mainstream items such as Pepsi. ShopBots then retrieve them from the backroom and have them delivered within minutes.
Not everybody is certain this is the right move, however.
“Whole Foods has great brand equity,” said John Foraker, CEO of Once Upon a Farm. “It’s been built up over decades. If they were asking me, I’d say, ‘Be super, super careful.’”
Read more about Amazon’s and Whole Foods’ new experiment in The Wall Street Journal.
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