PARIS (Reuters) - French supermarkets Casino and Auchan have begun talks on a forming a partnership regarding the purchasing of food and non-food items, as competition intensifies within the domestic sector.
The companies said on Tuesday that they were in talks to jointly negotiate purchases with their main, multi-national food and non-food suppliers.
Casino's planned partnership with Auchan in this area comes just a week after it struck a deal with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Casino and Amazon said last week that groceries sourced from Casino's Monoprix supermarket arm would be available through the Amazon Prime Now app and website.
Amazon's purchase of the bricks-and-mortar retailer Whole Foods Market Inc (NASDAQ:WFM) for $13.7 billion last year, along with a deal for Amazon Prime to sell products from the British supermarket chain Morrisons, have led to speculation that Amazon could bid for a retailer or form a partnership in France.
Casino already has another delivery partnership with UK online retailer Ocado (LON:OCDO), signed last year.
In January, Casino's French rival Carrefour (PA:CARR) also said it would seek a partnership in China with Tencent in the face of competition from Amazon.