POWAY, Calif. — A locked-up building on Pomerado Road in Poway was supposed to be San Diego County's first Amazon ‘Just Walk Out’ store. But these days, you can't even walk in.
Although Amazon Fresh curbside pickup signs and cart corrals are still up, they’re not serving any purpose.
Poway residents said the empty building is a mystery to them.
“I think we and a lot of people feel some frustration and confusion, why is this wonderful big building and now nothing is happening?” Poway resident Evan Foote said.
Amazon Fresh stores have a high-tech concept where scanners connect to the Amazon app and track what's inside a shopper’s cart. It bills customers automatically when walking out the door, cutting out the need for checkout lines.
“We were really excited when we saw that coming. And nothing happened,” Resident Ann Collins said.
Earlier this year, Amazon said they were stalling the rollout of Amazon Fresh retail stores while it re-evaluates the concept’s economics.
Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, addressed the stall in an Amazon analytics meeting in February.
“We've decided over the last year or so that we're not going to expand the physical fresh doors until we have that equation with differentiation and economic value that we like, but we're optimistic that we're going to find that in 2023,” Jassy said.
“We're working hard at it. We see some encouraging signs. And when we do find that equation, we will expand it more expansively.”
We reached out to Amazon Fresh to see what this means for the Poway storefront. They said they don’t have any details to give on specific locations.
Online, the address shows Amazon Fresh as 'temporarily closed,' with no store information.
The City of Poway posted an update on Facebook in November of last year. It said the City found out the opening has been ‘delayed indefinitely’ from an Amazon corporate representative.
The post also said the City signed off on a certificate of occupancy for the store, “signaling the completion of any work that required involvement from the City of Poway.”
Meanwhile, people in Poway have other ideas for what can be done with the building.
“This is an empty building, we have homeless people, maybe we should look into this option,” Heidi Stienner said.
At CBS 8, we are always Working for You and our community. This is a station promise that we will go the extra mile to solve a problem our audience can’t solve themselves. We want to hear your ideas on how we can cover and help our community. If you have a story idea, please email us at workingforyou@cbs8.com.
WATCH RELATED: What’s going on with the vacant Fry’s Electronics in Murphy Canyon?