On Monday, Amazon's chief merchant, John Farrell, announced in a LinkedIn post that he's leaving the company to "explore new challenges." Farrell oversaw buying for its Fresh division and joined Amazon in 2019 from British supermarket chain Tesco.
Amazon is reshaping its grocery business as it continues its nearly two-decade effort to become a giant in the U.S. grocery market.
In recent years, Amazon has expanded its selection of fresh food and grocery staples at same-day warehouses in the U.S., while testing 30-minute deliveries of groceries and other items in some areas.
The company said Tuesday it expects to open more than 100 new Whole Foods locations over the next few years, expand its line of Whole Foods mini-markets and test new formats, including a superstore outside of Chicago.
Last January, Amazon tapped Buechel to oversee its sprawling grocery business. He's taken steps to bring Whole Foods, which Amazon acquired for $13.7 billion in 2017, closer to the company's in-house grocery teams. Buechel has dubbed the effort "One Grocery."
Jassy told investors in May that he remains "very bullish" about Amazon's grocery business. The company says it's "one of the top three grocers in the U.S." with over $150 billion in gross sales and more than 150 million customers shopping groceries each year.
"It's a very significant business, and then I think we have a bunch of other areas that will allow us to grow in this area," Jassy said.
As part of the store closures, Buechel said the company is laying off some employees across the grocery organization, and is working to help staffers secure jobs elsewhere at Amazon. He didn't say how many jobs were impacted by the restructuring.
"To our team members who helped develop, build, and run our Fresh and Go stores: thank you," Buechel wrote.
Here's the full memo from Buechel:
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