Construction is underway for Amazon’s first drive-up grocery store in Seattle, but the location at 51st street is just the beginning of a much larger vision.

The e-commerce giant is planning to open 20 grocery store locations across the country by the end of 2018, according to documents reviewed by Business Insider.

These internal documents also reveal that Amazon’s goal is to open up 2,000 Fresh-branded grocery stores over the next decade - and they will open 200 every year to hit the mark.

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The e-commerce giant is planning to open 20 grocery store locations across the country by the end of 2018, according to documents reviewed by Business Insider. These internal documents also reveal that Amazon’s goal is to open up 2,000 Fresh-branded grocery stores over the next decade

THE GROCERY BUSINESS Internal documents reveal Amazon plans to open 20 grocery stores by the end of 2018. They will be located in major cities like Seattle, Las Vegas, New York City, Miami and the Bay area. Half of the stores are set to be ‘click-and-collect’ facilities that customers drive-up to and grab their online orders. And the other will traditional grocery store with shopping carts, aisles and cashiers. The documents also say Amazon wants to open a total of 2,000 grocery stores over the next 10 years and will launch 200 a year to reach that goal. Advertisement

DailyMail.com contacted Amazon for comment regarding the documents and an Amazon spokesperson replied, 'We don’t comment on rumors or speculation.'

Leaked images surfaced earlier this month showing a partially finished storefront near Ballard Bridge at NW 51st Street and 15th Avenue NW with ‘Amazon Ballard’ scribbled in two places.

These little clues suggest the Seattle-based firm is in the middle of developing its own stores and drive-in locations for AmazonFresh members.

These brick-and-mortar stores, known internally as Project Como, are expected to sell fresh produce, milk, meats and other perishables, The Wall Street Journal reported on the topic earlier this month.

People close to the matter revealed that customers will be able to order items with longer shelf lives for same-day delivery using a mobile app or touch screens placed throughout stores.

Amazon has been selling groceries since 2013 via the platform with its AmazonFresh, which works similar to FreshDirect, but hasn’t really taken off because of a $299 yearly membership fee – Amazon announced this month that Prime users now pay $15 per month.

But it seems that the e-Commerce giant has plans to push deeper into the grocery business.

The documents viewed by Business Insider reveal that these 20 grocery stores will be located in major cities like Seattle, Las Vegas, New York City, Miami and the Bay area.

The documents viewed by Business Insider reveal that these 20 grocery stores will be located in major cities like Seattle, Las Vegas, New York City, Miami and the Bay area. These locations will be treated as a pilot program – allowing them to experiment with different types of stores.

Although it may seem like the firm has a full-blown grocery business, these locations will be treated as a pilot program – this allows them to experiment with different types of stores.

Half of the stores will be designed as ‘click-and-collect’ facilities that customers drive-up to and grab their online orders.

The other half will be traditional grocery stores with shopping carts, aisles and cashiers.

Amazon has yet to confirm or deny the documents, so there is not telling how many grocery stores, if any, the firm will actually end up opening.

AMAZON OPENING MORE BRICK-AND-MORTAR BOOK STORES Amazon is planning to launch a brick-and-mortar bookstore in Chicago, Illinois. The Chicago store is scheduled to launch in 2017 and 'will be in the trendy neighbourhood of Southport Corridor', the Financial Times reported in August. The Amazon Books is going have 3443 N. Southport Ave as its address, according to the Chicago Tribune. The company has already announced plans for brick-and-mortar stores in San Diego, California and Portland, Oregon. Amazon launched a physical bookstore in Seattle, Washington, in November 2015. The company says on its website: 'Amazon Books in University Village, Seattle, is a physical extension of Amazon.com. Advertisement

Business Insider does say that the documents list a launch schedule of 200 stores a year in order to hit the 2,000 mark in 10 years.

This move is also part of the firm’s attempt to reinvent itself – they are breaking away from being just an e-Commerce giant to a giant that offers more tangible services.

Amazon began opening physical brick-and-mortar book stores in 2015 – starting with its hometown Seattle.

They have also adding pop-up stores in malls that displays its own line of hardware products.

Half will be designed as ‘click-and-collect’ facilities that customers drive-up to and grab their online orders. The other half will be the traditional grocery stores. These stores are a way for Amazon to compete with other stores, as they only own 1.1% of the market

However, these stores, including its grocery establishments, will put Amazon head-to-head with major retailers who started with physical locations, such as Wal-Mart, which has more than 5,000 stores across the US.

Wal-Mart also owns 17.3 percent of the grocery business – compared to Amazon’s 1.1 percent.

About a fifth of consumer spending goes to groceries in the US, but only two percent of sales account for online grocery purchases, according to Morgan Stanley Research.

Amazon’s secretive drive-up grocery store takes shape in Seattle neighborhood https://t.co/IKHvIixvxx pic.twitter.com/DbQxQv9Hut — Norm Gregory  (@NormGregory) October 10, 2016

Leaked images surfaced earlier this month showing a partially finished storefront near Ballard Bridge at NW 51st Street and 15th Avenue NW with ‘Amazon Ballard’ scribbled in two places

The investment firm estimates the online grocery market could more than double to over $24 billion this year.

For its new convenience stores, like the one in Ballard, Amazon is taking a page from discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, as well as dollar stores, according to the people familiar with the matter.

Yes, Amazon is behind that drive-up grocery store coming to Ballard #Seattle https://t.co/BuvHBrjdFj r/SeattleWA pic.twitter.com/hyClVDrxUN — Seattle Reddit (@rSeattleWA) October 10, 2016

Business Insider does say that the documents list a launch schedule of 200 stores a year in order to hit the 2,000 mark in 10 years. Pictures is a leaked image of Amazon's alleged convince store in Seattle

They said these brick-and-mortar stores could take a year or more to open while Amazon explores new locations.

But the firm could be just a few weeks away from opening its first drive-in grocery location in Seattle, one said.

GeekWire published documents that show the e-commerce firm is working on a storefront in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood.

Could this be a new model of grocery shopping? Amazon are set to launch a drive-up grocery #store https://t.co/DZlGpFrkr9 pic.twitter.com/SxU8Q2KRQ0 — Hattie Jenkins (@HattieJenks) October 11, 2016

Sources said the convince stores could take a year or more to open while Amazon explores new locations.But the firm could be just a few weeks away from opening its first drive-in grocery location in Seattle (pictured)

Prior to this citing, the newspaper discovered a permit document that was filed with the city of Seattle that read: ‘storage racks insulation plans on main floor for Amazon’.

The work site is near the Ballard Bridge at NW 51st Street and 15th Avenue NW.