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
MedUX is one of six teams selected for the prestigious CNY Biotech Accelerator (CNYBAC) 2019 Medical Device Innovation Challenge (MDIC), an intensive six-month mentorship accelerator program that starts Aug. 1. MedUX was founded by Alec Gillinder and Quinn King ’20, both…
Matt Shumer ’22, founder of OptechVR/Visos, is part of an elite cohort of seven university teams from the United States selected for the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars LaunchPad Summer 2019 Lift program. The LaunchPad Lift accelerator program, which kicks…
Syracuse University student teams won five prizes in the 10th annual New York Business Plan Competition (NYBPC) organized by the Upstate Capital Association of New York on April 26 in Albany. Syracuse University teams won the most of any university…
Four Syracuse University students were selected to participate in the Blackstone LaunchPad powered by Techstars Startup Weekend in Los Angeles April 26-28. They were part of a cohort of 70 student attendees representing 20 universities from six states and two…
Many Major League Baseball teams are witnessing big drops at the box office this season. Newhouse School Professor Brad Horn, former vice president for communications and education at the Baseball Hall of Fame, suggests three reasons why. There’s a cold, harsh…
If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.
