Whole Foods Rolls Out New Discounts for Amazon Prime Members
Whole Foods will now offer loyalty discounts for Amazon Prime members, the premium grocery chain announced Wednesday.
The discounts — much anticipated since Amazon purchased Whole Foods in June 2017 for more than $13 billion — include an additional 10% off hundreds of sales items and other weekly specials, like $10 off per pound of wild caught halibut steaks, for example.
The Amazon Prime loyalty markdowns are currently available at Whole Foods locations in Florida and will begin rolling out nationwide this summer. The new discounts could make the Whole Foods, known for its high prices and luxe food offerings, as affordable as more mainstream grocers for subscribers to Amazon Prime, Morgan Stanley analysts tell Reuters.
In recent days, the anticipation of a new Amazon Prime loyalty program with the grocery chain intensified after the online retail behemoth announced in late April it would be ending Whole Foods' in-house loyalty program effective May 1. After that date, only Amazon Prime members would enjoy loyalty perks while shopping at the gourmet grocery stores.
"Stay tuned — we're cooking up something great with Amazon and can't wait to tell you about it," the company said in an email to Whole Foods loyalty members at the time.
Since Amazon's June 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods, Prime members have enjoyed several perks at the grocer, including 5% cash back on Whole Foods purchases with the Chase Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card and free two-hour delivery of their grocery orders.
Whole Foods is not Amazon's only foray into the grocery game. Earlier this year, Amazon introduced its own brick-and-mortar grocery store in Seattle, called Amazon Go, that does not have any cashiers. Instead, the store uses the Amazon Go app, cameras and sensors to track your purchases and charge your Amazon account. The company just announced two additional Amazon Go locations coming to San Francisco and Chicago.
Amazon Prime has about 8 million subscribers. The service, which previously cost $99 per year for faster shipping and access to Amazon's streaming video platform, was raised on May 11 to $119 per year for new members and renewed subscriptions.
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