Amazon’s Made-Up Prime Day Holiday Will Give Discounts at Whole Foods This Year

Groceries at Whole Foods will be discounted for Amazon Prime members on Prime Day when the retailer’s annual made-up “holiday” rolls around next week.

Prime Day — actually a 36-hour event — starts on the afternoon of July 16, with Amazon offering substantial discounts to members of its Prime service. On the Whole Foods side of the discount extravaganza, Prime members who spend $10 or more at Whole Foods on or after July 11 will get free money in the form of an extra $10 credit to spend anywhere on Amazon (but only on Prime Day). Other discounts include a 10-percent rebate across the board at the grocery store for those with Prime’s Visa credit card, and a $20 discount for Prime members who use Whole Foods’ delivery service for the first time.

Between July 11 and 17, Prime members also get hefty discounts on a mixed bag of groceries, including:

• One pound containers of organic strawberries, two for $5
• Boneless chicken breasts for $3.99/pound
• Icelandic cod fillets close to half off for $8.99/pound
• Allegro bagged coffee: buy one, get one free
• 30 percent off MegaFood vitamins and supplements
• RXBAR Protein Bars, two for $3
• 12 packs of Waterloo sparkling water, two for $7
• Honey Nut Cheerios: buy one, get one free
• Lesley Stowe Raincoast Crisps (three ounces) for $4.99
• 40 percent off self-serve tea cookies by the pound

It’s not the first time Amazon has given members of its premium service better deals than all the rest of the normals at Whole Foods — in May, Amazon started offering routine discounts to Prime members. It’s arguably part of Amazon’s broader attempt to try to shed Whole Foods’ image as an expensive place for groceries, alongside price drops implemented across the board in those supermarkets.

This is the first time that Prime Day has included the grocery store in its hefty slate of discounts — the Seattle online retail giant’s purchase of the Austin-based chain went through late last summer.

• Amazon Buys Whole Foods [E]
• Amazon Prime Discounts at Whole Foods Are Rolling Out Nationwide [E]
• Amazon Wastes No Time in Slashing Whole Foods’ Prices [E]