Amazon Plans a Brick-and-Mortar Behemoth

Amazon's next brick-and-mortar bet is anything but small: it's planning a suburban Chicago store big enough to outsize the typical Walmart—or two Targets. The company on Monday won approval to build a roughly 230,000-square-foot "big-box" site on what ABC7 describes as "a 35-acre bean field" in Orland Park, Illinois. It will be Amazon's largest physical store to date. About half the space will function as a conventional store selling groceries, household basics, and prepared food; the rest will serve as a back-of-house hub for fulfilling both online and in-store orders.

The store is designed as a hybrid of digital and physical shopping, and the Wall Street Journal gives an example: "Customers who see a sweater they like but prefer a different color could place an order at a kiosk in the store, then pick up the item at the checkout while paying for their groceries." Separate entrances are planned for online order pickups and delivery drivers, with workers assembling online grocery orders out of public view to avoid crowding the aisles.

Orland Park mayor James Dodge says it won't end up being a warehouse or fulfillment center. "When you say 'Amazon,' they assume it's a 3 million-square-foot building with four stories and 100 truck bays. That's not what this is. This is a large store," he tells ABC7. The yet-unnamed concept could open as early as late 2027.