Originally published in Entrepreneur Magazine

By Craig Lawson

When Amazon opened its first brick-and-mortar store in 2015 on the campus of Purdue University in Indiana and then in December announced its first Amazon Go check-out free convenience store in Seattle, people wondered what on earth the online retailing giant was doing experimenting in the physical world it disrupted in the first place.

Now, Amazon’s $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods Market tells us that the Seattle company wants a big slice of the $674-billion U.S. grocery market (and while Whole Foods’ revenue, approximately $16 billion in 2016, is but a fraction of the entire grocery market, Amazon’s price setting status in the American retail landscape will cause reverberations throughout the grocery econsystem). The deal is the largest manifestation yet of the omni-channel, or in this case, “clicks-to-bricks” trend, in which online retailers seek to optimize the customer experience by augmenting a strong online presence with physical retail stores. In this case, Amazon is dramatically changing the grocery landscape for all those involved (consumers, vendors, distributors, competitors and related companies).

It’s easy to imagine that Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos’ obsession with single focus, ruthless efficiency will be brought to bear on the firm’s grocery technology.

Read the full article at https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/295958

Craig Lawson is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at MHT Partners.