Furthermore, both Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh were struggling before the acquisition, meaning in many ways, the deal was forged out of weakness rather than strength as many seem to think. Amazon launched Fresh, its grocery delivery service, back in 2007 in its hometown of Seattle, slowly expanding it to cities across the country. However, the service never gained a significant market share, even in the cities it competed in, causing the company to branch out with other grocery experiments like a cashier-less convenience store, grocery pickup kiosks, and finally, the Whole Foods acquisition.