Amazon Taps Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel to Oversee Groceries
Amazon has appointed Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel to lead its worldwide grocery stores, the company announced Monday. Buechel will continue to lead Whole Foods while taking on an expanded role, succeeding Tony Hoggett, who left Amazon last October.
In his current role, Buechel has unlocked the ability to make high-quality natural and organic groceries more affordable and accessible to customers, helping Whole Foods achieve record sales growth and expand to over 535 locations. He became CEO of Whole Foods in 2022 after co-founder John Mackey retired.
Buechel will oversee not only Whole Foods but also Amazon’s larger grocery business, which includes its line of Fresh supermarkets, Go cashierless stores, and online grocery service. He will report to Doug Herrington, who is one of the closest executives to CEO Andy Jassy and serves on the S-team, a tight-knit group of senior executives.
Amazon has long been determined to cement itself as a grocery destination for shoppers, and Buechel’s expanded role is seen as a key step in achieving this goal. The company has made significant progress in unifying its online and brick-and-mortar grocery operations and appealing to a broader swath of consumers.
Under Buechel’s leadership, Amazon will continue to focus on making grocery shopping simpler, faster, and more affordable for customers, particularly Prime members. The company has been tweaking its grocery division in recent years, shuttering some Fresh and Go stores as part of cost-cutting efforts and selling its cashierless checkout technology to third-party retailers.
