Today, Tom Furphy and KC do an extended deep-dive on Amazon’s decision this week to close its 57 Amazon Fresh Stores and 15 Amazon Go stores, and to focus on expanding its Whole Foods footprint – some of the closing Fresh stores reportedly will be converted to the Whole Foods banner – and ramping up its fast grocery delivery business.
Not only do they consider the rationale behind and implications of this decision, but they explore what the lessons are for Amazon’s competitors; look at Amazon’s future bricks-and-mortar aspirations; and ponder the fact that Amazon also seems to be dropping its differentiated Amazon One palm payment authentication service (see story below).
It is a jam-packed Innovation Conversation, focusing on the cultural shifts that seem to be taking place at a company that for more than two decades has been one of the world’s most innovative.
If you’d like to listen to this Conversation as an audio podcast, click and download below.
The continuing goal of “The Innovation Conversation” is to explore various facets of the fast-changing, technology-driven retail landscape and how they affect businesses and consumers. It is territory that Tom Furphy – a former Amazon executive who led the team that developed Amazon Fresh, and currently CEO and Managing Director of Consumer Equity Partners (CEP), a venture capital and venture development firm in Seattle, WA, that works with many top retailers, manufacturers, and technology companies – is uniquely positioned to address.
You can reach Tom Furphy at [email protected].
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