Amazon doesnt make a profit according to their own accounting, and Whole Foods was created with debt. Using profits from one to service the debts on the other isn't the kind of thing a billionaire would do and it isnt what institutional investors would want to see. Either Bezos has backers willing to lose money or he is making side money off the books.

In the first case bankers would want to consolidate all markets as that raises their leverage. Its possible. His backers might prefer a small loss to tons of completion across all industries trying to sell Americans plastic Chinese shit.

The other possibility is that the combination of the two methods of distribution for Whole Foods and Amazon, plus Bezos ownership of Amazon lockers is an attempt to create a safe ecosystem for large drug cartels to distribute cocaine, heroin, and other illegal products to street dealers for completely anonymous transactions.

You look at the small details that don't make sense on their own. Why does Amazon tolerate so many fraudulent stores? Why spend capital on a low margin, but risk heavy business like anonymous lockers? Why put so much effort into an employee base that is not interested in knowing what products are being sold?

The government isn't interested in cartels, its how Bezos can continue to operate, they want the small fish. From what it looks like, he has a distribution system that spans the country. The sellers are anonymous and have zero standards. The employees do not have time to check their inventory for contraband.