Whole Foods Market is coming to Shelby Township. The new location will take over 13975 Hall Road, a site presumed to be an Amazon Fresh location based on public records.
The announcement closes the book on years of speculation about what would ultimately fill the long-vacant building along the busy Hall Road corridor. For Macomb County residents, it's a milestone: the county is Michigan's third-largest by population, with more than 880,000 residents, yet it had no Whole Foods of its own in 2012, according to Patch. Shoppers wanting the organic grocer previously had to cross into Oakland County, heading to stores in Rochester Hills, Birmingham or West Bloomfield.
From Secret Amazon Fresh Project to Whole Foods
The 13975 Hall Road building has a winding history. It previously housed a Gander Mountain outdoor retail store, per C & G Newspapers. Amazon quietly targeted the site back in 2021, submitting zoning and site plan applications under the corporate pseudonym “Mendel Grocery Store” — a code name the company reportedly used nationwide to keep prospective Amazon Fresh locations under wraps during local planning approvals, the outlet reported.
The project never materialized as an Amazon Fresh store. In January, Amazon announced it was closing all of its physical Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores nationwide — about 72 locations — to redirect its brick-and-mortar grocery strategy toward expanding Whole Foods Market instead, a shift Hoodline covered in its piece on Amazon's retail pivot.
Why Amazon Is Betting Big on Whole Foods
The pivot isn't just about shutting doors — it's about expansion elsewhere. Since Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market in 2017 for $13.7 billion, sales at the grocer have grown by more than 40%, prompting the company to set a target of opening more than 100 new Whole Foods locations nationwide in the coming years. Physical retail stores generated over $22 billion for Amazon in 2025.
The Hall Road corridor runs along the border of Shelby Township and Sterling Heights. The arterial road, also known as M-59, links the M-53 and I-94 freeways, making it a prime retail target for a high-volume grocery concept.
A Growing Footprint — and New Competition
A Whole Foods location existed in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood by 2018, as Hoodline noted in an earlier roundup of the city's best grocery stores.
The new Shelby Township store will also bring fresh competition to Macomb County's grocery scene. How the new Whole Foods will affect local grocers remains to be seen.
Pay Raises Could Shape Hiring
Whatever staffing comes with the new store, it will land amid a major companywide investment in Whole Foods workers. In September, Amazon announced a $230 million compensation investment for Whole Foods Market, raising average store associate wages above $21 per hour starting September 28 and expanding health and tuition benefits to more than 100,000 employees nationwide — a rollout Hoodline detailed in its report on Whole Foods' pay raise. Full-time employees will also gain access to Amazon's healthcare plans and Career Choice tuition assistance programs.
No opening date has been announced for the Shelby Township store, and questions remain about exactly when Macomb County shoppers will be able to walk through its doors. For now, the former Gander Mountain site sits one step closer to becoming the county's first Whole Foods, closing out a long and unusually secretive chapter in local retail history.
