This former site of a Gander Outdoors store could be the future site of an Amazon Fresh grocery store on Hall Road in Shelby Township.
By: Kara Szymanski | Shelby-Utica News | Published March 17, 2025
SHELBY TOWNSHIP — Amazon Fresh, a subsidiary of the American e-commerce company Amazon, could be making Shelby Township a home for its next business location.
Amazon Fresh is a grocery retailer with physical stores and delivery services in some U.S. cities.
In 2021, “Mendel Grocery Store” applied for a certificate of zoning compliance for a site at 13975 Hall Road. The vacant address was once a Gander Outdoors store.
“Mendel Grocery” is the code name Amazon uses for its physical grocery stores, known as Amazon Fresh, and is not a real grocery store name.
According to the township, that tenant space received a site plan approval from the township’s Planning Commission in 2020 as part of site plan application #20-31.
Nick Fiore, in the Planning Department in Shelby Township, said the department does not officially have details at this time.
“The site plan proposed renovating the façade and modifying the parking lot. At the time, this site plan was for an undisclosed future tenant. The site has been under construction since, although I believe there was a year or two interruption in the construction for reasons that I am not aware of,” he said.
He said they know that there are rumors of an Amazon Fresh store going into that location, but they cannot speak to those rumors.
Griffin Buch, Amazon spokesperson, said Amazon’s goal is to make grocery shopping faster and easier for customers whether shopping in store or online. They want Amazon to be customers’ first choice for selection, value and convenience.
“We already have a large online grocery business and millions of products available for fast delivery, and the next step is to continue building out our physical presence. We’ll continue to open new Whole Foods Market stores, and will do so selectively with Amazon Fresh as we see results we like. We’re encouraged by the early success of our new store design, which we’ve introduced in our new Amazon Fresh stores and nearly all of our existing locations over the past year, and will proceed adaptively,” Buch said.