Amazon Says It Doesn't Plan to Open 2,000 Grocery Stores

By Laura Stevens 

Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday that it doesn't currently have plans to open 2,000 grocery stores.

The Wall Street Journal on Monday reported that Amazon envisions opening more than 2,000 brick-and-mortar grocery stores under its name, depending on the success of new test locations, according to people familiar with the matter. The Journal also reported that Amazon is exploring multiple possible brick-and-mortar store concepts, including a larger, multiformat store, and that it would likely adopt 30,000- to 40,000-square-foot plans for such stores.

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment for that story.

On Wednesday, Amazon said in a statement that it has "no plans to open 2,000 of anything. Not even close. We are still learning." The brief statement also said of the possibility of 30,000- to 40,000-square-foot stores, "We have no plans to build such a store."

An Amazon spokeswoman declined to elaborate on the statement.

Reached again after Amazon's statement, the people familiar with the matter confirmed that Amazon envisions potentially opening 2,000 brick-and-mortar stores, depending on how its trials go. One of those people confirmed that, on the larger-store concepts, Amazon is considering stores as large as 30,000 to 40,000 square feet.

Write to Laura Stevens at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 08, 2016 17:20 ET (22:20 GMT)

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