Whole Foods CEO Named VP of Amazon Grocery

Whole Foods (Austin, Texas) CEO Jason Buechel will take on an expanded responsibility leading Amazon’s Worldwide Grocery Stores (Seattle). He will join the company’s Stores Leadership Team and report to Worldwide Amazon Stores CEO Doug Herrington, who announced the promotion in a companywide e-mail. (Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017.)

In that message, Herrington noted that Buechel has been with WFM since 2013. “Prior to his role as CEO, he served as COO, providing operational leadership over all WFM physical stores, and overseeing the company’s technology, supply chain and distribution, store real estate and design, and HR functions. In his time as CEO, Jason has unlocked our ability to make high-quality natural and organic groceries more affordable and accessible to customers, helping WFM achieve record sales growth and expand to over 535 locations.”

Herrington also said “since creating a single WW Grocery Stores organization in 2022, we have made notable progress in our vision to make grocery shopping simpler, faster, and more affordable for customers. We’ve taken steps to integrate our huge grocery selection across our broader logistics network, and create a more seamless experience for customers, especially Prime members. This work will continue under Jason’s leadership.”

The company is still trying various approaches to help its food market concepts gain traction with consumers. “We’re getting great feedback on our new and redesigned Amazon Fresh stores,” wrote Herrington. “We’re also excited by new experiments, like in Phoenix, where customers can shop tens of thousands of grocery items—including fresh groceries—alongside millions of Amazon.com products, and have them delivered, together, in hours.”

In its coverage of the news, CNBC noted that Buechel assumes a slot previously held by Tony Hoggett, who left Amazon last October to join Wondery, a food-delivery startup led by entrepreneur Marc Lore.