who owns whole foods market
Whole Foods Market is owned by Amazon, which acquired the grocery chain in 2017 in an all-cash deal valued at about 13.7 billion dollars.
Who owns Whole Foods Market?
- Whole Foods Market is a U.S.-based supermarket chain specializing in natural and organic foods, headquartered in Austin, Texas.
- It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, meaning Amazon owns 100% of the company rather than just a minority stake.
- The sale to Amazon closed in August 2017, bringing more than 400 physical Whole Foods stores under Amazon’s broader retail and logistics ecosystem.
How that ownership shows up today
- Whole Foods is tightly integrated with Amazon services, including Amazon Prime benefits and online grocery ordering and delivery.
- Amazon continues to position Whole Foods as its primary brick‑and‑mortar grocery brand, even as it scales back some other physical grocery formats and doubles down on Whole Foods expansion and online delivery.
Quick timeline snapshot
- 1980: Whole Foods starts as a natural foods store in Austin, Texas.
- 2017: Amazon announces and then completes the acquisition for about 13.7 billion dollars.
- 2020s: Whole Foods operates 500+ stores across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., fully under Amazon’s corporate umbrella.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.