Amazon is not kidding around when it comes to the hires it is making in its up-and-coming grocery delivery operation. Longtime Amazonian Ben Hartman has been chosen to run AmazonFresh. Hartman was most recently the technical adviser or “shadow” to Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon’s global consumer business.
Among Amazon’s more unique HR features is the “shadow” program, with graduates typically going on to run crucial new initiatives at the company. Another longtime Amazon worker, Steve Kessel, a member of Bezos’ leadership team, is also involved in the planning for Amazon grocery store experiments, according to Recode reports.
Kessel is also known to be the current head of Amazon’s expansion into physical retail stores, including the new bookshops it has up and running.
Though Amazon’s expansion into grocery was slow and somewhat uncharacteristically cautious at first, the nation’s dominant eCommerce player has since put on the gas some by lowering prices and allowing for monthly payments instead of a large upfront fee.
Amazon is also building its own drive-up grocery stores and is said to be planning small brick-and-mortar convenience stores that will sell perishable foods. Doug Herrington, Amazon’s SVP of North America retail, is also helping to oversee these plans.
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