New at Whole Foods: The 'Farm Fresh' Amazon Echo

[ad_1]

Late summer is prime season for Amazon’s Echo. (Joseph Pisani/AP)

Walk into a Whole Foods store now that the company’s acquisition by Amazon has become official, and you’ll definitely see some changes — and we’re not just talking about the lower prices.

It appears that many Whole Foods stores are selling the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot, the company’s voice-activated home assistant that answers to “Alexa,” at a reduced price. And, based on photos on social media, many stores have placed that display smack-dab in the produce aisle, with branding that says, inexplicably, “Farm Fresh.”

Alexa, what on earth were Amazon and Whole Foods thinking?

[Thanks to the Amazon-Whole Foods deal, are the days of “Whole Paycheck” over?]

If by “farm” the company means “manufacturing facility,” then, sure. But the idea that an Echo would be branded as “Farm Fresh” at a grocery store means what many have suspected: Whole Foods is transforming immediately and dramatically, and there will probably be more jarring changes to come. (Disclosure: The founder and chief executive of Amazon, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post, but that doesn’t mean we get free Whole Foods guacamole in our break room. Please, Jeff?)

The display of “Farm Fresh” electronics became a running joke Monday on social media.

Neither Amazon nor Whole Foods has yet responded to questions about why the company is using the words “Farm Fresh” to describe electronics, whether they’re being tongue-in-cheek, and why, of all places, they are keeping the Amazon Echo near the organic peaches. We’ll update this story when they do.

More from Food:

At Amazon’s Whole Foods, lower food prices and a tower of discounted Amazon Echoes

Alice Waters wants Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to ‘make a difference’ with Whole Foods

A billionaire-owned restaurant charged a ‘minimum wage’ fee. Outrage ensued.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)