Gadgetory

Amazon announced it is buying the Whole Foods Market organic grocery store chain for 13.7 billion dollars well now we know how Amazon plans to expand its reach into the grocery business because with this merger Amazon will control more than four hundred and sixty supermarkets across the u.s. Canada and the UK those all can now become distribution centers for the Amazon fresh grocery delivery service why invest in stocking warehouses with groceries when you could just use grocery stores now if you're not familiar with it Amazon fresh is a $15 a month service for Prime members you order fresh produce and other groceries online get it delivered to your door at a time you choose Amazon is also starting to test a drive up service where you can order on your phone and 15 minutes later drive up to the Amazon fresh center and someone puts the groceries in your trunk that could be implemented in any Whole Foods parking lot Amazon even has a gadget just for ordering groceries on Amazon fresh the dash wants scans barcodes and adds those items to your shopping cart or you could just speak into the microphone to tell it what you want and that's not all Whole Foods could also be a testing ground for Amazon's more ambitious retail technology the no lines no checkout just walk out concept known as Amazon go it's only being tested now in Seattle but here's the gist when entering the Amazon go store you open the Amazon Go app take the products you want and sensors keep track of what was taken off the shelf it knows what you walked out with and charges your account accordingly but the Whole Foods merger is then a done deal just yet it still needs to be approved by shareholders and meet regulatory approvals which likely won't happen until later this year the plans are to keep the Whole Foods Market named with CEO John Mackey stayin at the helm of the chain and Amazon would also keep the Whole Foods headquarters in Austin Texas I'm Bridget Carey you can find more details at cnet.com