This week Whole Foods launched a loyalty program for Amazon Prime members, offering them special discounts at their grocery stores. The specials are available now in Florida and will roll out to all other stores starting this summer.
Associate professor Lee McKnight in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University says this latest move is no surprise, and a logical next step in the cyber-physical strategy Amazon is increasingly demonstrating.
McKnight says:
“The latest announcement of the deeper integration of Amazon Prime membership with Whole Foods in-store pricing, not just for those customers when having their groceries delivered at home, is no surprise.
“It is a logical next step in the cyber-physical strategy Amazon is increasingly demonstrating, whether with its no-check-out physical stores in Chicago and elsewhere, its tie-ins with Sears Automotive Centers for tire installation (after online purchase), and for groceries, using Whole Foods stores and the overlap of Amazon Prime membership to extend the amount, and percent, of disposable income spent on Amazon-provided goods and services.
“Naturally, to convince customers they truly are getting Amazon-typical thin profit margin prices, and not the prior premium priced ‘Whole Paycheck’ prices of Whole Foods pre-Amazon purchase, will take some time. But there is no reason to think this presents an insurmountable obstacle. Competing grocers should be afraid. Very afraid. And better start working on their own cyber-physical strategies, or risk the fate of other industries obsolesced in real-time by Amazon’s leveraging its mega-data-centers-deep cloud analytics expertise to gain market share.”
To request interviews or get more information:
Daryl Lovell
Media Relations Manager
Division of Communications and Marketing
T 315.443.1184 M 315.380.0206
dalovell@syr.edu | @DarylLovell
820 Comstock Avenue, Suite 308, Syracuse, NY 13244
news.syr.edu | syracuse.edu
Syracuse University
Syracuse University Libraries’ Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars is accepting applications on a rolling basis from undergraduate and graduate students who need help moving an idea from concept to commercialization. Grants of up to $2,500 may be awarded to individual students…
A new paper by Syracuse University Professor Joseph Warburton offers compelling new evidence of the risk of business development companies (BDCs). Warburton, who holds dual appointments as professor of law in the College of Law and professor of finance in…
Syracuse University senior Bailie Brown will be the first female to earn a bachelor’s degree in sport analytics from the Falk College when she completes her coursework in May 2021. She is grateful for connections made with women in sports…
Amy McHale, assistant dean for master’s programs at the Whitman School of Management, calls herself a jack of all trades. Since 2008 she has held roles focused on the student experience and preparing graduates to enter the workforce with a…
After kicking off in the fall of 2018, the Women in Leadership (WiL) initiative, created through the vision of Candace Campbell Jackson, senior vice president and chief of staff to Chancellor Kent Syverud, and a steering committee of women leaders,…
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.
