Whole Foods’ newly-opened market by New York City’s Bryant Park has a unusual new feature: a “produce butcher.” 
 
 An on-site employee will take care of fruit and vegetable prep work for any interested shoppers. The butcher will “cut, slice, dice, julienne, chop, and grate any produce item,” according to a Whole Foods press release. 
 
 The service does not come without a price, however. The cost is set at $1 per pound for bulk items and an additional $1 for any individual items, according to Gothamist, a popular New York City blog. 
 
 The new store has food from New York City celebrity chefs as well as outposts from several of the city’s most popular restaurants. ||||| https://www.instagram.com/p/BP5q9ZFlbdm/ Whole Foods' newest store has hired someone to cut up your fruits and vegetables for you. 
 
 The store near New York's Bryant Park, which opened last week, features a "Produce Butcher" who will chop, dice, and mince whatever vegetables customers need prepared. 
 
 Whole Foods will charge $1 per pound, or per individually priced item, Foodbeast reported. 
 
 The Food Butcher isn't the only upscale innovation that Whole Foods is offering at the new Manhattan location. The grocery store also has three full-service restaurants, including a sushi restaurant and the Harbor Bar, which serves wine and 24 beers on tap. 
 
 Whole Foods has been trying to shed its "whole paycheck" reputation with new marketing and the launch of its more inexpensive 365 chain. However, at this new Manhattan location, luxury still seems to reign supreme. ||||| Alexa, lower the prices. 
 
 Amazon said Thursday that its takeover of Whole Foods (WFM) will close on Monday, and its first order of business will be to make some items more affordable, according to a release. 
 
 "Whole Foods Market will offer lower prices starting Monday on a selection of best-selling grocery staples across its stores, with more to come," the company said in a statement. 
 
 Items that will be marked down on Monday include organic avocados, organic brown eggs, organic salmon, almond butter, organic apples and organic rotisserie chicken. Amazon said it'll keep the markdowns coming, and that Amazon Prime members will get additional discounts at Whole Foods. 
 
 "Everybody should be able to eat Whole Foods Market quality -- we will lower prices without compromising Whole Foods Market's long-held commitment to the highest standards," Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Consumer, said in a statement. 
 
 Related: Amazon-Whole Foods merger gets green light from U.S. government 
 
 That's good news for Whole Foods critics, who have long bemoaned the grocery store's high prices. 
 
 Its prices even sparked a legal controversy in 2015 when New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs accused Whole Foods of "systematic overcharging for pre-packaged foods," like sliced fruit and sandwiches. The chain paid $500,000 in fines to settle the matter. The city's inspectors called it the worst case of mislabeling they had seen in their careers. 
 
 And there was more bad press when a photograph of a $6 bottle of "asparagus water" at a California store went viral. The beverage appeared to contain nothing but several asparagus stalks soaking in water. Whole Foods later pulled the beverage and said it was prepared incorrectly. 
 
 Comedian John Oliver, host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight," ridiculed Whole Food's pricing in a memorable 2015 sketch. (HBO, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner.) 
 
 Related: Echo Dots briefly sold for free on Friday 
 
 The segment featured parody ads for items including tilapia wearing yoga pants for $84.99, a pomegranate listening to NPR for $64.99 and a block of ice with an avocado balanced on top for $25.99. 
 
 Oliver may have felt a small personal victory on Thursday. Amazon (AMZN) specifically said "organic tilapia" is among the items that will be marked down on Monday. (Note: It's never been sold with yoga pants.) 
 
 Some other updates Amazon says it has in store: 
 
 -- Amazon lockers -- where customers can pick up or send back items purchased on Amazon.com -- will pop up in "select" Whole Foods stores. 
 
 -- Whole Foods-brand products will now be available through Amazon.com and other Prime platforms, such as Prime Now, the same-day delivery service available in some markets. The store's brands include the Whole Foods label, 365, Whole Paws and Whole Catch. 
 
 --CNNMoney's Patrick Gillespie and Paul La Monica contributed to this report.
– We put a man on the moon, yet somehow we're still cutting our own carrot sticks? Well not anymore! Fortune reports a new Whole Foods location in New York City's Bryant Park has a "produce butcher" on staff. The produce butcher will "cut, slice, dice, julienne, chop, and grate" your fruits and vegetables on demand, according to a press release. Gothamist reports the service costs $1 per pound for bulk fruits and veggies and $1 for individual items, such as cantaloupe. There's a 5-pound limit on items you can have another human being cut up for you. According to Business Insider, "luxury ... seems to reign supreme" at the new Whole Foods store, which opened last week and features, among many other things, "artisanal" avocado toast and food from local celebrity chefs. (There was outrage after Whole Foods packaged peeled oranges in plastic.)