What Whole Foods' Plan to Hire 6,000 Says About Amazon's Growth Plans

Whole Foods Market announced that it's holding a National Hiring Day Nov. 2, with the goal of hiring about 6,000 workers.The move is another indication of Amazon.com's (NASDAQ: AMZN) aggressive growth ambitions for the country's leading organic grocer. In its own recent earnings release, Amazon reiterated that its goal for Whole Foods is to "pursue the vision of making high-quality, natural, and organic food affordable for everyone."

Apparently, that vision will require many more people, going against the narrative that Amazon will replace Whole Foods workers with robots and automation. Whole Foods has over 450 stores across the country, each of which employs between 50 and 600 people according to the size and traffic of the store.

The company currently employs about 87,000 people, so a new 6,000 would increase headcount by about 14%. Assuming the current store-to-employee ratio remains constant, that's enough staffing for about 50 more Whole Foods stores, or double the 25-store increase (7.1% square footage growth) the company achieved in its 2016 fiscal year.

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Source: Fool.com