Amazon bought Whole Foods Market for about $13.7 billion in 2017.
The acquisition was announced in June 2017 and completed in August of that year. Whole Foods remained a grocery brand, while Amazon gained physical stores and a larger presence in fresh food and neighborhood retail.
The deal attracted attention because Amazon was widely associated with e-commerce, cloud computing, and digital services rather than a large chain of supermarkets. It showed how online retailers could use physical stores for grocery sales, delivery, pickup, and customer services.
Whole Foods was founded in Austin, Texas, in 1980, and grew through a reputation for natural and organic food. The acquisition is sometimes confused with Amazon's later ownership of other retail brands, but Whole Foods was the major supermarket chain purchased in this transaction.