Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market in 2017.
Amazon announced the acquisition in June 2017 and completed it in August of that year. The transaction was valued at approximately $13.7 billion, including debt. Whole Foods Market continued operating under its own brand, while Amazon introduced changes involving prices, delivery, grocery ordering, and customer benefits.
The purchase was significant because it gave Amazon a large network of physical grocery stores. It also showed that e-commerce companies could use stores as local distribution and customer-service locations, rather than treating online and physical retail as completely separate businesses.
The year is sometimes confused with Amazon’s opening of its first physical bookstore, which happened in 2015. It is also distinct from Amazon Fresh, the company’s grocery-delivery service. Whole Foods Market was founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, long before Amazon bought it.