Amazon Prime Members Get More Whole Foods Discounts Than You Probably Realize

There has rarely been a corporate acquisition as strange on the surface as Amazon's 2017 purchase of Whole Foods. What did an online retailer primarily known for shipping books and goods at bargain bin prices have to gain from buying a grocery chain known for exorbitant prices and high-end health food? In fact, rather than transforming Whole Foods into a series of homogenized Amazon stores, the Seattle tech giant kept intact the upscale, crunchy vibe of its new, brick-and-mortar serfdom, even adding 3,000 local brands to Whole Foods stores as of 2022. That's not to say nothing changed at Whole Foods. In fact, the biggest change was that the grocery chain added a slew of benefits for Amazon Prime subscribers.

Many people view Whole Foods as an upscale, expensive place to shop for groceries. To be fair, the Amazon-owned chain does charge more for certain items than do many of its competitors. But for those who take advantages of all the perks offered by an Amazon Prime subscription, Whole Foods can be rather affordable. However, even those who are both regular Whole Foods customers and Prime subscribers, might not be taking full advantage of everything the membership has to offer. So, here are all the Amazon Prime benefits you can use to maximize your savings at Whole Foods.

One of the ways Amazon has integrated Whole Foods into its larger business is by integrating it with its preexisting logistics infrastructure to offer quick grocery delivery. Prime subscribers are able to pay an additional $10 each month to unlock unlimited grocery delivery from Whole Foods Market. In addition to the extra fee, the only other caveat is that orders must total $35 or more. This also applies to deliveries from Amazon Fresh, the other grocery option available through Amazon. Subscribers also get access to priority deliveries and recurring reservations.

The grocery subscription for Prime members comes with a few additional perks aside from grocery delivery. Those who sign up are also able to take advantage of 30-minute grocery pickups from both Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. These slots were once a full hour, but are now more efficient. Unlike delivery, 30-minute, in-person pickups have no order minimum. You can simply select a pickup window while placing your online order, head to the Whole Foods location you shopped at, and check in through the app when you arrive. Within your selected window, a Whole Foods employee will bring your order directly to your car.

Of course, shelling out an additional monthly fee on top of the base Prime subscription may not feel worth it for some people, but given that grocery delivery is otherwise $10 per-delivery, it's a huge discount for those who already rely on it. Whether your schedule keeps you too busy to get to the grocery store often, or you have a disability that makes shopping on your own difficult, grocery delivery is an enticing offer for many folks. 

While Whole Foods has sales on various products from week to week, Amazon Prime members get extra sales that aren't available to those who aren't subscribed. These additional sales take place on Tuesday and Friday each week, with steep discounts to popular items from across the store. The Tuesday deals tend to be catered toward weeknight meal items like baguettes, rotisserie chicken, or individually packaged Whole Foods Market Kitchens meals, while the Friday deals tend to be geared toward weekend favorites like alcoholic beverages, pizza, and charcuterie.

You can check which deals are available by heading to the Whole Foods app, or by visiting the Whole Foods Market Amazon page. The Member Deals are prominently displayed there, with current offerings at time of writing including Tuesday deals such as buy one, get one 50% off for 365 lean ground beef, buy one, get one 50% off on Whole Foods Market Kitchens Individual Meals, and buy one, get one 50% off on Whole Foods Market Bakery Baguettes. Friday deals include buy one, get one 50% off on packaged sushi rolls, 12 for $12 on live oysters, and $2 off certain summer beers.

Using the Whole Foods Market or Amazon apps, Amazon Prime subscribers can get extra discounts, even on items that are already on sale. Those who scan their QR code in the apps will get an extra discount of an additional 10% off of storewide sales. (To be clear, that's 10% off the sale price, not the pre-sale price.) Those savings can quickly add up over the course of a grocery haul, especially since some of the sales are rather steep.

Prime members get other discounts, too. There are always sales exclusive to Prime members at Whole Foods. These change frequently and may vary depending on where you live, but can be viewed in the Whole Foods app. For example, at the time of writing, there are Prime-exclusive deals such as 20% off New York strip steak, 25% off fried chicken, and an eyebrow raising 30% off pork back ribs. Did Whole Foods overestimate the appetite of its customers for meat? It sure seems like it, but there are also a surprising number of deals on fruit right now. 

The point is, Prime exclusive sale prices are usually quite tempting. If you're paying attention to sales, it's not difficult to recoup the cost of a monthly Prime subscription in the course of a single trip to Whole Foods using your Prime benefits. And you don't even need to bring your wallet to the store if you use palm scanning to pay at Whole Foods, another Prime member benefit, assuming you're comfortable with handing (pun intended) your biometric data over to Amazon.

One of the primary reasons for Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods was logistics. As Amazon expanded to become the largest online retailer in the world, it ironically found itself in need of a larger physical footprint. Especially as its promises of fast deliveries reached truly absurd proportions—many items on Amazon, especially basic household goods, are now delivered in as little as an hour depending on where you live—the company required more fulfillment centers. Aside from the grocery business, Amazon has transformed its many Whole Foods stores into a convenient way for customers to pick up and return items they bought online, and Prime members can take full advantage of this.

When ordering on Amazon.com, Prime members have the option to pick items up from their local Whole Foods. And since Amazon processes a truly staggering number of returns, customers can drop off their unwanted or faulty items at Whole Foods locations as well. Stores are equipped with Amazon lockers where online orders can be delivered, which are perfect for people who don't have access to a safe place for package delivery and need to keep their orders from being stolen. As for returns, all you need to do is submit the return online at Amazon.com to generate a barcode, then bring the return to a Whole Foods Market along with the return barcode.