(Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> owned Whole Foods Market opened its first delivery-only store in Brooklyn, New York on Tuesday, as the e-commerce giant looks to take greater advantage of a coronavirus-induced surge in online grocery shopping.
Amazon said it hired hundreds of employees to work at the new store, which will deliver to customers only in the Brooklyn area.
Afraid to step out of home during the pandemic, people are using their phones and computers to order bread, milk, vegetables and daily household essentials. This has boosted online business of retailers such as Walmart Inc <WMT.N> and Target Corp <TGT.N>.
Grocery delivery is one of the fastest-growing businesses at Amazon, with online sales tripling in the second quarter this year.
The company bought Whole Foods in 2017 for $13.7 billion.
(Reporting by Neha Malara and Uday Sampath in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
