Tony Hoggett, the senior vice president of worldwide grocery stores at Amazon, has left the company to become chief operating officer of mobile restaurant delivery and food hall chain Wonder.
On Friday, Hoggett announced his departure on LinkedIn after nearly three years in the position, where he oversaw the Seattle-based retail giant’s Amazon Fresh supermarkets, Whole Foods grocery stores and Amazon Go convenience stores.
Entrepreneur and ecommerce pioneer Marc Lore founded Wonder in 2018 and now serves as its CEO. The chain’s stores offer the menus of dozens of restaurant brands under one roof for pickup, delivery or dine in. Hoggett marks a major hire for the 27-unit Wonder, which is aiming to have 90 locations by the end of 2025 and has set its sights on an initial public offering (IPO).
The Amazon executive’s move to Wonder was revealed on Monday in a Fortune interview with Lore.
As COO, Hoggett will oversee Wonder’s real estate and store operations teams, as well as the company’s technology, supply chain, logistics and culinary engineering divisions, according to Fortune.
In a statement provided to Restaurant Business, Lore said, “At Wonder, we are deeply committed to investing in exceptional talent as we strategically shape our company’s future. Bringing Tony Hoggett on board as chief operating officer is key to our ongoing effort to recruit world-class leaders.”
Wonder has raised $700 million as of March 19, and Lore said that he is personally investing $100 million in the company. He has ambitious plans for the company, which he views as a “super app for mealtime” and has said could become “the Amazon of food and beverage.” Today, the business encompasses not only restaurants and food delivery, but also meal kits via the $103 million acquisition of Blue Apron in 2023, as well as a business-to-business division, Wonderworks, that sells its recipes and technology to other operators.
Hoggett joined Amazon in 2022. He has been at the helm for the recent expansion of Amazon Fresh, which has more than doubled its brick-and-mortar footprint in 2024, increasing its U.S. store count from 20 in April to 52 as of Oct. 15, according to Scrapehero.com. Amazon opened its newest Amazon Fresh store in Torrance, Calif., on Oct. 24.
Recently, Whole Foods Market recently introduced Whole Foods Market Daily Shop, a new small-format store designed to provide customers in urban neighborhoods a fast, convenient shopping experience. Ranging between 7,000 and 14,000 square feet, the size of some traditional convenience stores, the locations are about a quarter to half the footprint of an average 40,000-square-foot Whole Foods grocery store.
In early October, Amazon opened its first Amazon Grocery location in downtown Chicago. The small-format store, which is located downstairs from a Whole Foods Market, features name-brand products like Coca-Cola and Fritos chips.
And less than a week ago, Hoggett was touting Amazon’s new pilot in Phoenix that brings together Amazon’s three grocery entities Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon.com—enabling customers to make online purchases from all three in a single order.
Amazon released a statement about Hoggett’s departure, but did not name a replacement.
“After nearly three years of leading our grocery business, helping guide the organization to new levels of impact and building a strong team that will continue to make grocery shopping simpler, faster and more affordable, Tony Hoggett has decided to leave Amazon. We thank Tony for his many accomplishments at Amazon and especially for what he’s delivered for customers,” the retailer said.
Prior to his time at Amazon, Hoggett spent more than three years at U.K. grocery chain Tesco, where he served in a variety of roles, including chief operating officer and chief strategy and innovation officer.
Versions of this article first appeared in Supermarket NewsandRestaurant Business.
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