By Kate King
Amazon is launching its largest-ever retail store, planning a new property in the Chicago suburbs with a footprint big enough to squash the average Walmart store.
About half of Amazon's proposed big-box store in Orland Park, Ill., will sell groceries, general merchandise such as diapers and paper towels, and food prepared on site. The other half would be used for fulfillment of online and in-store orders, Amazon said.
The e-commerce giant has spent years trying to translate its online dominance into bricks-and-mortar success. It has yet to hit on a consistently winning formula. Amazon has closed dozens of branded stores and more than half of its Amazon Go convenience stores.
Now, Amazon is aiming bigger, planning a roughly 230,000-square-foot property that would be so large it could fit nearly two average-size Target stores under its roof.
Amazon is already the U.S.'s largest e-commerce retailer. But even with online shopping's meteoric rise over the past two decades, in-store purchases still make up more than 80% of all retail sales, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Big-box retail could offer Amazon a breakthrough with shoppers in real life, where retail rivals like Costco and Walmart have dominated bricks-and-mortar shopping with their giant stores.
"It's purpose-built for what we see retail customers demand today," Katie Jahnke Dale, a lawyer representing Amazon, told Orland Park officials at a public meeting this month.
In addition to the Illinois location, Amazon is planning to open other big-box stores in the U.S., according to people familiar with the matter.
Orland Park's Board of Trustees voted 5-2 to approve the project Monday. Amazon, which is purchasing the 35-acre site, can now apply for permits to demolish a closed restaurant on the property and start construction. The store could open as soon as next year.
Amazon executives have yet to name its new big-box concept and have offered few details. But in presenting the project to local officials and residents earlier this month, Dale described a store that will incorporate digital ordering and in-person shopping.
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, Dale said. Shoppers at the store could digitally arrange for heavy items, such as large bags of dog food, to be brought out directly to their cars.
Orland Park officials and residents worried that the project's large back-of-house component, which at half the building's footprint is significantly larger than a typical retail store, meant that the property would be used as a warehouse. But Dale said the space is needed to keep the store's in-person and online shopping separate.
Customers picking up online orders and third-party delivery drivers will have separate entrances from the retail store. Workers will assemble online grocery orders in the back-of-house space, rather than picking out bananas and cereal in the same aisles as in-store shoppers, Dale said.
Amazon has experimented with physical retail stores for more than a decade. Results have been mixed.
The company's Amazon Go convenience store, where the company charges customers electronically without them having to wait in line to pay, now has 14 locations nationwide. That is less than half the number of stores that were open in 2023.
Amazon's new grocery brand, Fresh, got off to a bumpy start but after an overhaul the company is moving forward with plans to open more locations. Fresh offers a more mass-market selection with often cheaper prices than upscale Whole Foods, which Amazon acquired in 2017 for about $13.5 billion.
Colin Sebastian, a senior research analyst with Baird, said Amazon's entrance into big-box retail makes more sense than its previous attempts at bricks-and-mortar, given that its online store already functions as a mass-market retailer.
"Most people don't do their weekly grocery visit on Amazon," he said. "But most people do buy batteries or new HDMI cables or laptops on Amazon."
Sebastian said he believes the company will use the vast amount of data it gleans from its Prime membership program to entice customers into its big-box store and stock the stores with items Prime members who live nearby often buy.
Success will depend on offering customers something that makes them switch from shopping at Costco, Target or Walmart, said Neil Saunders, a managing director with research firm GlobalData.
"Let's be honest: Do we need an Amazon big-box store? The honest answer is no, not really, the market is already very saturated," Saunders said. "I'm curious to see what they do to drive the foot traffic."
Write to Kate King at kate.king@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 20, 2026 22:00 ET (03:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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