Whole Foods Market, Inc. is an American natural foods supermarket chain, founded in 1978 by John Mackey and Walter Robb. As of December 31, 2017, the company had over 460 stores in the United States and Canada. Amazon.
com, Inc. announced on August 5, 2017 that it would acquire Whole Foods Market, Inc. for $13.7 billion, creating the world’s largest online-only grocery store. .
The deal is subject to approval by Whole Foods shareholders and the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC has given the acquisition a green light, but has asked Amazon to provide transparency about how it will use data collected from Whole Foods Market customers.
Whole Foods Market has been an independent company since its inception, but has been owned by Amazon since the Amazon.com acquisition in 2017.