Earlier this year, Amazon started folding Whole Foods’ corporate staff into its own employee systems. Now, it’s gearing up to do the same with thousands of frontline workers.
The move is part of Project Cremini, an initiative designed to integrate Whole Foods’ entire 100,000-plus corporate and frontline workforce into Amazon’s core business structure by next year, according to internal documents reviewed by Business Insider.
Once the shift is complete, every Whole Foods employee, across corporate and frontline roles, will use Amazon’s internal systems for performance reviews, workplace tools, and pay, with checks coming straight from Amazon.
The move marks Amazon’s latest step to unify its grocery operations and reinvigorate growth at Whole Foods, which has remained largely independent since the $13.7 billion acquisition in 2017. Ongoing challenges in the grocery space have prompted repeated reorganizations and shifting priorities over the years, Business Insider previously reported.
The move also marks the most significant imprint yet from Whole Foods CEO and Amazon VP of Worldwide Grocery Jason Buechel. Since being promoted to oversee Amazon’s entire grocery business earlier this year, Buechel has accelerated the integration of Whole Foods with its parent company, championing a “One Grocery” mindset.
In an email to Business Insider, Amazon spokesperson Griffin Buch said the company’s grocery business now serves more than 150 million customers with nearly 3 million grocery and everyday items. In the first half of 2025, Amazon’s everyday essentials, which include groceries and household goods, grew nearly twice as fast as all other categories in the US, Buch added.
“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 in an email. “These efforts reflect our focus on making grocery shopping easier, faster, and more affordable for customers.”
‘A single, efficient grocery business’
It’s been a busy first year for Buechel, who now runs both Whole Foods and Amazon’s Fresh grocery business. He’s pushed for a “unified employee experience” and made cutting internal bureaucracy a top priority.
As part of this effort, Amazon recently started consolidating its vendor-management teams for online and physical stores, according to one of the documents. Previously, Amazon used different supply chain teams, infrastructure, and tools for vendor buying and forecasting functions, creating inefficiencies, the document explained.
The 3-year process will start with Amazon’s 16 largest food vendors, and is expected to result in at least $94 million in additional profit, the document estimated. The goal is to “create a single, efficient grocery business” and “eliminate duplicate work,” it said.
Richard B. Levine/Reuters
Amazon also launched an internal project called “Fusion,” which delivers grocery products from Fresh warehouses and stores, as well as Whole Foods stores, according to another internal document. That service launched in August.
Last year, Amazon unveiled plans for a new Whole Foods store concept that would stock everyday items, such as Goldfish crackers and Tide detergent, in a microfulfillment center next to its retail locations. That store, which more tightly aligns the two businesses, recently went live.
‘Flying formation’
Since Amazon’s 2017 acquisition, Whole Foods employees have voiced worries about losing the brand’s identity and the values that once defined its appeal. That has created tension between the two companies and a fraught working relationship.
Buechel, however, is clearly focused on bringing Amazon and Whole Foods even closer together.
At an internal all-hands meeting in June, Buechel urged employees to adopt a “one grocery mindset.” To drive the message home, he used a “flying formation” metaphor, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Business Insider.
He said birds travel about 70% faster when they migrate together in formation, adding that Amazon’s grocery businesses need to be “interconnected.” That approach, he said, will help the company understand “not only where we’re going, but how we’re going to work 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,” Buechel said. “This work is about how we work smarter together.”
This year, Amazon began integrating Whole Foods’ corporate employees into its own employee programs, including performance reviews and pay structures. Additionally, some Whole Foods employees are now allowed to apply for roles at Amazon without following the tech giant’s standard interview process, people familiar with the matter told Business Insider.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy appears to be fully behind the company’s grocery overhaul.
On 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, although much of that came from nonperishable items, such as canned goods and beauty supplies.
Jassy added that Amazon’s online grocery customers shop more frequently and return twice as often as those buying nonperishable goods. He believes those repeat customers are fundamentally changing how people shop for groceries.
“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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