Whole Foods CEO Buechel Named Amazon’s Grocery Chief
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Amazon.com Inc.’s Whole Foods Market chief has been tapped to run the retail giant’s entire grocery business.
Jason Buechel will become the vice president of worldwide grocery stores, Amazon retail chief Doug Herrington said in a note to employees, which was also posted on the company’s blog. Buechel will continue to lead Whole Foods, a post he has held since 2022.
The organic grocer, which operates more than 535 stores, accounts for most of Amazon’s presence in physical retail. The Seattle-based company also operates Amazon Fresh-branded mainstream grocery stores — which stock products forbidden by Whole Foods’ quality standards — as well as Amazon Go pocket markets and a grocery delivery franchise.
Buechel, a former management consultant, joined Whole Foods in 2013, and led efforts to unify the formerly decentralized chain’s technology and record-keeping systems. He replaces his former boss, Tony Hoggett, a Tesco Plc veteran who left the company late last year after championing efforts to reinvigorate the company’s Amazon Fresh stores.
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As Whole Foods CEO, Buechel has overseen the ongoing integration of the Austin-based subsidiary into its parent company’s operations, while emphasizing the chain’s work on food quality standards. Whole Foods operates with a degree of autonomy, but some executives in recent years have received responsibilities that encompass Amazon’s entire grocery business.
Buechel faces various challenges, including the stop-and-go expansion of Amazon Fresh locations, integrating Amazon’s high-tech shopping gadgetry into a tradition-bound industry and periodic labor activism. Of immediate concern: Workers at a Whole Foods store in Philadelphia will vote Monday on whether to join the United Food & Commercial Workers union.
Amazon ranks No. 1 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest logistics companies in North America. It also ranks No. 1 on the TT100 list of the largest global freight carriers.
Whole Foods has a primary distribution deal with United Natural Foods Inc., which ranks No. 14 on the TT100 list of the largest private carriers in North America.
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