it's not hard to imagine a future where, instead of rummaging through the fridge
when you get hungry, you'll log into Amazon. You'll probably order lunch from that cool ramen shop across town and, while you're at it, decide between a hangar steak and Moroccan-spiced chicken meal kit to cook for dinner. Maybe you'll even throw in a few fresh vegetables and milk or a box of Amazon-branded cookies for dessert.
This one-click food shopping is easy to imagine because, to some extent, it already exists. And if Amazon has its way, it will be the new way of eating in America.
Over the last decade, the online retailer has plowed its way into the food and beverage business. At first, it started slowly in 2007 with its grocery delivery program called AmazonFresh. But now, Amazon is making a full-throated declaration of its intentions for the food industry with a multi-pronged approach: In addition to AmazonFresh, the company is also competing in the restaurant delivery and meal kit space. And just in case the company wasn't busy enough, the online retail giant has also launched its own line of Wickedly Prime snack foods.
Amazon's grip on the food world is only getting stronger. As Bloomberg reported last month, the company is so dedicated to capturing a piece of the food industry that it's currently testing a variety of brick-and-mortar formats with features like drive-in grocery pickup and checkout-free shopping. "Amazon's goal is to become a Top 5 grocery retailer by 2025," wrote Bloomberg. The company intends to compete with the likes of national chains like Kroger and Whole Foods.
If Amazon's gambit works, though, it's more difficult to imagine what the food system will look like in the future, which raises a number of questions. What happens to the supply chain? Who will work in the food industry? Will there be grocery stores? What items will they stock? Will our need for restaurants change in any way? Not to mention the larger issues so intimately linked to the food system like climate change and the economy. How will Amazon affect all of these things and what does it mean for how we eat? https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/amazon-go-grocery-store-locations-fresh/food-and-drink
