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As the single biggest online shopping chain, Amazon already has a sizeable presence in the retail market and has taken a lot of business away from brick and mortar establishments. With its recent acquisition of Whole Foods, analysts are now saying that the online merchant giant could potentially cause mass job losses and closures among traditional Supermarkets and convenience stores.
Its payment of $13.7 billion meant that Amazon now has ownership of over 450 physical locations of Whole Food stores in the US. Since the announcement of the acquisition, questions regarding the fate of the employees working at these stores has been in the minds of analysts, Forbes reports. Many are saying that the deal is particularly bad news for the struggle regarding the $15 minimum wage.
One of the biggest reasons for why human employees are feared to go on the chopping block is Amazon’s consistent reliance on technology. The company has always maintained a lean operation in all of its areas of business, which would make people like cashiers and sales personnel even more expendable than before.
For the fight to get a $15/hour minimum wage to work, employers need to know that they are going to lose business if they continue to resist. This is not going to be a problem with Amazon as it can always replace people with fancy machines that will do the work for them, including delivery and charging customers.
Aside from the workers themselves, Quartz notes that Supermarkets are in just as much danger right now. One of the biggest obstacles that stopped Whole Foods from exploding in growth is the exorbitant prices of its products. With Amazon behind the wheels, the costs of its products could go down significantly, which would make them more appealing to customers.
What’s more, this acquisition also threatens to change the entire grocery store landscape, making most businesses obsolete. This will affect more than just Whole Food cashier jobs but the 3.5 million that work the register in other stores.
