Next, Amazon will come for Starbucks

The past five years, in particular, have been a transformative period in how people prefer to buy their goods. There are many categories of retail businesses at risk of being squashed by Amazon. The largest is Starbucks. It's inconvenient having to get to a Starbucks to buy your coffee, but Amazon can actually transform that. There are already clear signs Amazon is making moves in food and beverage, especially in the coffee space. In 2016, it launched its own brand of coffee, Happy Belly, which is roasted in Canada and shipped to the customer. Amazon's Whole Foods acquisition adds an additional layer of distribution for food and non-food products. Whole Foods has about 450 locations. Amazon can use Whole Foods for pick up web-based or app-based coffee orders. There are all kinds of ways Amazon can incentivize their customers to buy its brand of coffee at home using Prime. There's Subscribe and Save and Prime Pantry. There's also Amazon Rewards points, just to scratch the surface. In addition, Amazon can enlist any food service business via Amazon Restaurants to become an Amazon Coffee partner. And, yes, delivery through drones, driverless electric vehicles, or just good ol' humans will be a part of this. So, yeah, expect a total assault on Starbucks as a coffee brand at home: "Alexa, make me a cappuccino."