Amazon Switches Whole Foods Gig Workers To Employees

Amazon, like many companies, has been changing its policies over the past few years in an attempt to capture the growing number of consumers who have apparently ditched physical supermarkets, preferring to make their grocery shopping online, CNBC wrote Tuesday, March 8.

Amid increased competition from Walmart, other supermarket chains and apps like Instacart and DoorDash, Amazon is preparing to streamline its own operations, increasing both the company’s legendary efficiency, as well as improving in other aspects of the business such as logistics and personnel management.

In late February, Amazon announced to the workers who select and prepare items for deliver that they would soon be offered a new position, working for the company’s Whole Foods division under formal employment contracts according to a letter seen by CNBC.

The company will offer these gig workers a position as Whole Foods employees with longer shifts, as opposed to keeping them as gig workers. Per the report, schedules will be made “up to three weeks” ahead of time and will cover two-week periods. This goes against Amazon’s previous statements, which claimed that “shift flexibility” and the ability to work as little as four hours a week would be among the perks received by employees.

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“To help continue to offer the best experience for our team and customers, we are transitioning online grocery-fulfillment operations currently operated by Amazon to Whole Foods Market by the end of the year,” the company said in its letter to employees. “This transition will happen slowly for the majority of stores.”

The change is the latest step Amazon has made to simplify its sprawling grocery and physical retail operations, including its two supermarket chains, several convenience stores and apparel stores.

Amazon also announced recently that it was closing down all its physical bookstores in an attempt to focus more on its grocery store operations, including Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market and Amazon Go.