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Comment by m_ke | Hacker News Reader

Why did they buy Whole Foods? They could have easily opened up a few hundred grocery stores too.

Uber has around 4 million registered drivers and millions of daily users and a huge team of engineers working on these problems. With Lyft and Uber in this space it makes no sense for amazon to try and compete with them.

Uber is trying to turn itself into a logistics business and Amazon is investing a ton into making 1 hour delivery work because perishable goods are a huge slice of commerce and a big growth opportunity for them.

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> Why did they buy Whole Foods? They could have easily opened up a few hundred grocery stores too.

Opening up a few hundred stores is an expensive, time consuming endeavor. In contrast, creating a ride sharing app and promoting it a bit seems like something that a large tech company could pull off much easier.

If it's so easy why did they spend billions on Zappos, Audible, Twitch, Goodreads, Pillpack and etc?

Existing customer base and data

I said "much easier", specifically in comparison to creating a profitable high-end national grocery chain.

The question was "when will Amazon buy Uber?" and my question in response is "does Amazon need to do that or can they do it themselves?"

Making a copy of Uber doesn't require Amazon to buy 4 million cars. They just need to launch a website and an app. Like another poster said above, Uber drivers aren't loyal to Uber and will swap to Lyft wherever and whenever. A third company doesn't cause any friction at all.

It wouldn't make sense for them to compete with Uber and Lyft while they're busy losing money on each ride. They could launch a delivery only platform and attempt to leverage existing ride sharing drivers but then they'd have to compete with Ubers of the world on price per mile.

They already have this, you can sign up today to deliver packages for Amazon.

https://flex.amazon.com

Amazon bought Whole Foods because they will upend its cost structure with robots in the stockroom and better logistics.

Groceries, while being notoriously low margin, are the second largest retail business in the US (after gas stations). Launching a new grocery brand, especially one with Whole Paycheck's great brand reputation isn't cheap or easy. See Tesco's Fresh & Easy debacle for an example.

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