Amazon wants to put Whole Foods and Prime Now delivery services into more locations

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Don’t live near a Whole Foods or in an area covered by Amazon Prime Now? That might change in the near future, according to the Wall Street Journal. Amazon is reportedly planning on building new Whole Foods locations nationwide, to use them as hubs for the Prime Now 2-hour delivery service.

Amazon purchased the Whole Foods chain back in 2017 for $13.7 billion and has been looking for ways to expand its impact. Adding new superstore-like locations with Prime Now hubs looks to be a smart move. There are currently 475 Whole Foods stores nationwide, so adding the majority of these to the Prime Now delivery network gives Amazon more value for each location.

More about the new stores

These new stores will be around 45,000 square feet on average, making them larger than most Whole Foods locations but nowhere near the cavernous size of your average warehouse store like Costco. Perhaps this mixed-use type of Whole Foods location makes it easier to get around zoning laws as grocery stores are easier to get permission for.

It looks like the new Whole Foods stores will come to the Midwest first, reportedly Amazon and Whole Foods have been exploring sites in Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho, along with others nationwide. Those new stores will join the 48 other cities nationwide which can take advantage of speedy delivery.

Curbside pickup is expanding

With the expansion to Prime Now also comes a widening of Whole Food’s 30-minute curbside grocery pick-up service, according to reports. It’s nice to see more value coming from my $119 yearly Amazon Prime subscription, although I don’t live inside the Prime Now service area near me.

It’s almost getting to the point where you won’t have to do any of your own shopping, ever. I have mixed feelings about this, grocery shopping is fairly annoying, but it does constitute a decent chunk of my weekly exercise. I guess I’ll have to order a treadmill on Amazon to compensate.

What do you think? Happy to see this happening? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.