Amazon Primes The Pump At Whole Foods

Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods has been far from a smooth transition to date. Between culture clashes (the data driven approach at Amazon versus the emotional and experiential approach of Whole Foods), changes of policies to small vendors and systems integration with widely reported out of stocks, Whole Foods seems to have lost some of its retail mojo. To be fair to Amazon, Whole Foods was struggling to re-position itself prior to the acquisition. I have been watching closely to see how Amazon would be working to make changes. Now, the long awaited integration appears to be happening.  Whole Foods announced the roll-out of a rewards program in Florida, where Amazon Prime members will receive 10% off hundreds of items initially and also have access to rotating weekly specials. Whole Foods believes this will be a significant off-set to its high priced reputation. Read more at Forbes.