Seattle-based, online behemoth Amazon may have put a pause on its Fresh grocery concept expansion into Minneapolis.
According to reports by Progressive Grocer, Amazon was subleasing at least six locations throughout the Twin Cities region that were supposed to be built out as Amazon Fresh grocery stores. At one point during development, the locations even reportedly featured Amazon Fresh signage, but none of the locations have been completed or opened.
During Amazon’s quarterly earnings call in early May, CEO Andy Jassy said, “We have a set of experiments and concepts that we are working on across the dozens of stores and are pretty optimistic that some may work and hopeful that over the next year we find that.”
Despite sending mixed messages, Amazon has said it is still exploring its grocery business, Progressive Grocer reports.
At least seven similar “zombie” stores are currently situated throughout the country. Another 26 Amazon Fresh locations are supposedly under development, but no announcements have been made regarding their current status.