Amazon plans its biggest retail store yet near Chicago
Chris Morris
Wed, January 21, 2026 at 10:06 AM EST
1 min read
In this article:
Amazon's efforts in the brick and mortar space haven't been roaring successes so far, but the company is betting that bigger could be better.
The online retail king has announced plans to open a 230,000 square foot retail facility in Orland Park, Il., a Chicago suburb. The megastore's campus will span 35 acres, have roughly 800 parking spaces and, perhaps most importantly, won't require shoppers to be a member of Amazon Prime.
It's expected to open no earlier than 2027.
The Orland Park village board gave final approval to the store Monday night, despite some opposition from community members in attendance.
While the store's footprint will be enormous, not all of that space is dedicated to retail shopping, with a focus on groceries, general purpose merchandise, and food prepared on site, similar to a Costco. More than half of the building will be reserved for back-of-house operations, Amazon said, though it did specify that it would not be used as a fulfillment center or warehouse.
If this iteration is successful, Amazon could open other large-scale stores in other cities. The company has a commanding lead in online sales, but that category makes up less than 20% of the overall U.S. retail market, with most consumers still buying products in physical stores.
Amazon has seen success with Whole Foods, but that chain was already successful when Amazon acquired it. Other retail ventures haven't gone as well. The company operates more than 50 Amazon Fresh stores and 14 Amazon Go convenience stores, but that number used to be nearly twice as large. Amazon has been shutting those retail locations down since 2023.
View Comments