Amazon Wants You to Buy an Echo With That Whole Foods Turkey
- Retail giant gives Echo speakers prime space at Whole Foods
- Earlier deals, device discounts part of its holiday strategy
Amazon.com Inc. is betting that people shopping for discounted organic Thanksgiving turkeys at Whole Foods this week may decide to pick up an Echo digital assistant as well. The idea is simple: Those gadgets will linger in homes a lot longer than leftovers and probably generate far more money for Amazon than the few bucks it shaved off the price of those birds.
This gifting season, its first since acquiring natural grocery chain Whole Foods Market, Amazon is expanding far beyond its typical year-end strategy of winning wallet share from rivals Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp. and EBay Inc. The company is using the holiday moment and its broader brick-and-mortar presence to further a lead in the emerging market for voice-activated smart home speakers, hoping to leave tech rivals Google and Apple Inc. in the dust.