Today in retail: Amazon goes for grocery with Whole Foods acquisition

The online behemoth has made tentative pushes into grocery and physical stores over the past 18 months, be it through its launch of its online food offer Amazon Fresh in the UK or its futuristic Amazon Go store and smattering of physical bookshops in the US.

However, this represents a full-throttle assault on the bricks-and-mortar market by the retail titan commentators once said signalled the death knell of the high street.

Whole Foods boasts over 460 stores across the UK, Canada and its native US and has won itself a legion of loyal shoppers for its laser focus on high quality, health-food focused products.

Combining the physical footprint and brand reputation of Whole Foods with the best-in-class online capabilities and relentless innovation of Amazon makes this is an acquisition that will have a transformative impact on the grocery sector and beyond.

Also in grocery today, Tesco continued its run of rising like-for-like sales in its first quarter trading update, while Zalando launched a comprehensive fulfilment service for its retail partners and H&M’s year-on-year sales rise failed to meet market expectations.

Quote of the day

“Whole Foods Market has been satisfying, delighting and nourishing customers for nearly four decades – they’re doing an amazing job and we want that to continue”

– Amazon founder Jeff Bezos

Today in numbers

10m

The number of additional transactions recorded at Tesco in its first quarter, compared to the same period last year

£700m

Father’s Day UK sales prediction, according to GlobalData

Monday’s agenda

Look out for Bonmarche’s full-year results as well as analysis on the rapidly changing UK beauty sector and a video of soon-to-float fashion retailer Quiz’s renovated Westfield store.

Grace Bowden, reporter