Amazon is moving to integrate Whole Foods Market’s entire 100,000-plus workforce—corporate and frontline—into its own systems as part of Project Cremini. The initiative, slated for completion next year, will shift all Whole Foods Market employees onto Amazon’s tools for performance reviews, workplace systems, and pay.
The move represents Amazon’s biggest step yet in unifying its grocery operations and comes as the company works to boost growth at Whole Foods Market, which has largely operated independently since its 2017 acquisition. It also underscores the growing influence of Whole Foods Market CEO and Amazon VP of Worldwide Grocery Jason Buechel, who has pushed a “One Grocery” mindset since taking over Amazon’s entire grocery business this year.
Amazon spokesperson Griffin Buch told Business Insider the company now serves more than 150 million grocery customers with nearly 3 million grocery and everyday items. “As we continuously work to make it easier to collaborate and innovate on behalf of our customers, we’re exploring new ways of working across our grocery and everyday essentials business,” Buch said. “These efforts reflect our focus on making grocery shopping easier, faster, and more affordable for customers.”
To streamline operations, Amazon has begun consolidating vendor-management teams across online and physical grocery. The three-year process starts with Amazon’s 16 largest food vendors and is expected to generate at least $94 million in additional profit. The goal, according to internal documents, is to “create a single, efficient grocery business.”
Amazon also launched “Fusion,” a unified delivery project pulling from Fresh warehouses, Fresh stores, and Whole Foods Market stores. Meanwhile, its new Whole Foods Market store concept—which adds a micro fulfillment center stocked with everyday items—recently went live.
Buechel has continued urging teams toward closer alignment. At a June all-hands meeting, he used a “flying formation” metaphor, noting that birds travel about 70% faster together. “Over the course of the last several years, all of us have been working together in our own team’s flock, if you will, and while we’ve all been heading in the same direction…we haven’t necessarily been united,” he said. “This work is about how we work smarter together.”
Whole Foods Market corporate employees began moving onto Amazon’s HR and pay systems earlier this year, and some can now apply for Amazon roles without the tech giant’s standard interview process.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy signaled his support for the overhaul during last month’s earnings call. He said Amazon’s grocery and everyday goods business generated more than $100 billion in gross merchandise sales over the past year and emphasized how repeat customers are reshaping shopping habits. “It’s really changing the trajectory and the size of our grocery business,” Jassy said. “And I also believe that this many-years tradition of the weekly grocery stock-up is changing. And I think we’re a big part of that.”
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