Amazon said to launch Pantry to take on Costco, Sam's

USA Today reports:

Amazon.com is working on a new business called Pantry that will help the world's largest Internet retailer expand further into the giant consumer package goods market and take on warehouse club stores Costco and Wal-Mart's Sam's Club, according to three people familiar with the effort.

Pantry, which is run by Billy Hegeman, a senior manager in vendor management and consumables at Amazon, is currently set to launch in 2014, the people said on condition of anonymity. They did not want to be identified because Amazon's plans are still private.

An Amazon spokesman Scott Stanzel declined to comment Thursday afternoon.

The service will be targeted at existing members of Amazon's Prime shipping program. It will launch with about 2,000 products typically found in the center of grocery stores, such as cleaning supplies, kitchen paper rolls, canned goods like pet food, dry grocery items like cereal and some beverages, the people explained.

No word yet when the union movement will try and protect us from low prices.