Whole Foods CEO to lead Amazon's entire grocery business
The CEO of Whole Foods Market is taking on a much wider role at Amazon.
In a memo to employees, Doug Herrington, the CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, said that Jason Buechel, the chief executive of Whole Foods, will take on an expanded role leading Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores while maintaining his current role. Buechel will joining the Amazon stores leadership team and report to Herrington. (Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017.)
Buechel took the reins as chief executive of Whole Foods from founder John Mackey in September 2022. He joined Whole Foods as executive VP and CIO in 2013 after serving 13 years as managing director and partner of Accenture and was promoted to COO of Whole Foods in 2019.
As part of his new role, Buechel will now oversee Amazon's Fresh supermarkets, Go cashierless stores and online grocery service.
"I’m truly humbled by the opportunity to serve as the new leader of worldwide grocery stores at Amazon," Buechel said in a LinkedIn post. "This expanded responsibility gives me an opportunity to look after the collective grocery offering across Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go and grocery partnerships — and help move forward our goal of making grocery shopping simpler, faster, and more affordable for customers."
During his time as COO of Whole Foods, Buechel oversaw technology, supply chain and distribution, store real estate and design, and HR functions as the organic grocer achieved record sales growth and expanded to more than 555 locations.
Whole Foods also recently unveiled its new retail concept, called Whole Foods Market Daily Shop, aimed at providing a smaller store with convenience for fast-paced urban shoppers while paving the way for Whole Foods to expand in dense, metropolitan areas.
Claire Peters, VP of Amazon Retail and Anand Varadarajan, VP, product and technology, Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores will report to Buechel in his new role.
"Jason will be a fantastic leader to take the team forward and deliver on the solid 2025 plans the team has built," Herrington said in the memo, which was posted on an Amazon corporate blog. "Claire will continue in her role leading Amazon Fresh, Amazon Go, and grocery partnerships, and Anand will continue to lead all of product and technology for WWGS. I’m thankful for their support through this transition."
Amazon expanded the footprint of its Amazon Fresh high-tech grocery store concept during 2024, even as it replaced "Just Walk Out" frictionless checkout technology with other high-tech shopping features like Dash cart smart carts and Amazon One palm-based payment. The company has also been scaling back its Amazon Go checkout-free convenience concept.
[READ MORE: Amazon reportedly closing Amazon Go store]
