It’s the most recent news that took us all by surprise. Everyone, from housewives to everyday grocery shoppers, was stunned when Amazon.com purchased Whole Foods. According to Forbes magazine, Jeff Bezos didn’t waste any time figuring out how Amazon will integrate its biggest-ever, $13.7 billion acquisition. Amazon put price cut wars into motion when Whole Foods stores nationwide planned to integrate the grocer within its larger e-commerce platform. Once more, Amazon’s relentless growth shook Wall Street. Meanwhile, we all started to think of everything we’d order and wondered if a drone would be arriving at our home now to deliver fresh organic products.
Late this past summer, Whole Foods cut prices on everything from bananas and avocados to eggs, Tilapia, beef and baby kale in its existing stores nationwide. After a technical integration, Amazon Prime became a part of Whole Foods’ rewards program, offering Prime members savings and other in-store benefits. Eventually, popular Whole Foods private label products such as 365 Everyday Value, Whole Catch and pet foods-oriented, Whole Paws, will be integrated with Amazon. com, Amazon Fresh, Prime Pantry and Prime Now. Finally, Amazon Lockers for e-commerce pickups will become available in some Whole Foods stores.
The Whole Foods purchase by Amazon.com rang a bell affecting “all of us,” says Boca Raton housewife Allison Myers who frequently shops at Whole Foods. “With three kids, I have no time to shop and Amazon.com has changed everything for my free time. But, now with Whole Foods being a part of the mix, it may even get just a little easier each day. Saving time each day is important to us. While I’m drinking my morning coffee, maybe it’s a fact that a drone can deliver our breakfast?” While we envision all the perks, it’s going to be a one-step at- a-time approach but it seems the tracks are laid for a new roadway.
Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994 after making a cross-country drive from New York to Seattle, writing up the Amazon business plan on the way. He had left his well-paying job at a New York City hedge fund and initially set up the company in his garage. Bezos is known for his attention to business details. As described by Portfolio.com, he “is at once a happy-go-lucky mogul.”
At age 53, Jeff Bezos was born Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His maternal ancestors were settlers who lived in Texas and over the generations acquired a 25,000-acre ranch near Cotulla. As of March 2015, Bezos was among the largest landholders in Texas. His maternal grandfather was a regional director of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission in Albuquerque before he retired early to the ranch, where Jeff spent many summers as a youth, working with him. Apparently, at an early age, he displayed mechanical aptitude—as a toddler, he dismantled his crib with a screwdriver. Bezos often displayed scientific interests and technological proficiency; he once rigged an electric alarm to keep his younger siblings out of his room.
However, Jeff’s mother married her second husband, a Cuban who immigrated to the United States, and Jeff was then adopted by him at age four, with his surname changed to Bezos. Eventually, the family moved to Houston, Texas and then on to Miami, Florida where he attended Miami Palmetto High School in Pinecrest. While in high school, he joined the Student Science Training Program at the University of Florida, receiving a Silver Knight Award in 1982. He was high school valedictorian and a National Merit Scholar.
In 1986, Jeff graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. While at Princeton, he was also elected to Tau Beta Pi and served as the president of the Princeton chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. After graduating, Bezos worked on Wall Street in the computer sciences field. He then worked on building a network for international trade for a company known as Fitel. Later, he worked at Bankers Trust before moving on to Internet-enabled business opportunities at the hedge fund company, D. E. Shaw & Co.
Today, Amazon’s business is not without its challenges. The company’s imperative to deliver more products faster has ratcheted up its annual shipping costs north of $11 billion, reinforcing the pressure to wring efficiencies out of the company’s processes and its people. Amazon is working to counteract this legacy.
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