Amazon Is Reportedly Transferring Its Shoppers To Whole Foods And Reddit Is Confused

The subreddit dedicated to Amazon employees making Whole Foods grocery deliveries has fallen into debate over the course of the last week. Why? Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, has decided to transition its "Shopper" positions to serve under the Whole Foods brand by the end of 2022, reads a screenshot of an alleged company announcement shared on Reddit. "Closer to summer, Amazon Shoppers will have the opportunity to join the Whole Foods Market team as Shoppers and Team Members," the statement reads. The user who posted the screenshot asked their fellow Amazon workers whether or not they would take advantage of the offer.

"If I didn't have kids sure but I do," one answered. "I need consistency and I just don't trust having consistency in an hourly retail job." Another expressed that this change could potentially increase their workload: "I'm a WF shopper and I basically have to run the front end as well as shop and it sucks." On another thread discussing the logistics of the transition, Whole Foods Shoppers described their typical responsibilities. "I used to be a store shopper at Whole Foods and I was on register at least half the time. Maybe even more because they're short staffed all the time." Here's how current Amazon Shoppers think they will be affected by the change.

On Reddit, many responses to the user who asked Amazon employees if they would be willing to switch to Whole Foods said no. Several explained that their reasoning stemmed from their need for flexibility, as they expect that Whole Foods would not allow them to set their own hours. Some Redditors who have already transitioned from Amazon to Whole Foods described positive experiences, such as one who said they made the move last October and shared that when not shopping, he is expected to help the staff with tasks such as bagging and stocking.

Others shared different sentiments, as was the case with a user who wrote, "I know plenty of people who made the transition and have nothing but bad things to say." A possible reason why many of the responses to the announcement are negative could be the recent news that Whole Foods has become a more stressful place to work. Earlier this month, Insider published the experiences of five anonymous Whole Foods Shoppers, who described being pressured into collecting a certain number of grocery items per hour and being closely "tracked" on their activity during shifts. 

On Reddit, some Amazon Shoppers who began working with the company for flexible hours and extra money said they wouldn't want to join this kind of culture. "You are going to be thrown into an already toxic, understaffed, and underappreciated WF employee pool that is having some of the largest understaffing issues and turnover in the companies history," u/L0rd_J0e said. "This is Amazon's way of exploiting you to fill in those understaffing issues instead of trying to find more employees to train which costs them more money than just transferring you over."