Amazon invests $230M+ in Whole Foods Market team members

Amazon is making one of the most significant investments in its more than 100,000 Whole Foods Market team members to date – more than $230 million in higher pay, expanded benefits, and new programs supporting the health, families, and futures of its U.S. team members. On September 28, every hourly store team member is getting more compensation, bringing the average store team member wage to more than $21 an hour, and their total compensation to more than $29 an hour when you include the value of their elected benefits.

Amazon has been quietly overhauling its packaging, and the numbers tell the story: in 2025, automated fulfillment machines in North America avoided 288 million plastic bags, and single-use plastic in shipments dropped from 65% to 37% in a single year.

The driving force is "extensible paper"—a stronger material that can stretch 5 to 7 percent before tearing, roughly double to triple the flexibility of standard Kraft paper—making it compatible with automated packing machines. Since 2015, Amazon has avoided 5.4 million metric tons of packaging materials in North America and Europe combined.