Amazon’s Mobile Deal-Of-The-Day Store Comes To Whole Foods

Less than a year after Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods, the eCommerce retailer is bringing its Woot-like deal-of-the-day mobile store to the parking lots of the grocer’s brick-and-mortar locations, TechCrunch reported.

The companies announced Tuesday (Jan. 30) that the Treasure Truck, which allows consumers to pick up a daily deal purchased through the Amazon app, will start coming to Whole Foods stores with new offers. Amazon kicked off the promotion by offering the Instant Pot, a popular kitchen item, for a discount of 30 percent off nationwide.

In the past, Amazon has offered an array of Treasure Truck items from GoPro cameras to Harry Potter books and special editions of the Amazon Echo. The truck has even offered food and edible products like Thanksgiving turkeys and live lobsters.

To promote Whole Foods — since the truck is in its parking lot, after all — Amazon will hand out coupons for $10 off a $40 purchase to Treasure Truck shoppers in addition to recipes from Michelle Tam, the author of the Nom Nom Paleo cookbook. 

Since its launch in 2015, the Treasure Truck service has aimed to bring a unique and mobile way to shop from Amazon.com by offering “highly desirable, limited-quantity products, food and more” that customers could schedule to pick up directly from the truck.

By downloading the Amazon Mobile Shopping app, customers can check out which item is available for purchase that day and order by tapping the “Buy Now” button. They then select a convenient location — like Whole Foods — and a time to meet the Treasure Truck to pick up their product the same day. For those who do not end up liking the item, Amazon’s general return policy applies to the purchase.

The race, however, is for the swift. The inaugural item in 2015, for example, a GoPro Hero4 Black video camera, sold out within an hour of going on sale.