Amazon Plans Hybrid Megastore in Chicago Suburbs to Boost In-Store Sales

Amazon has built its empire online, but its next big bet is firmly rooted in the physical world. The company has received approval to build a massive new retail store in the Chicago suburb of Orland Park, signaling its most ambitious push yet to bring customers back into brick-and-mortar shopping. The proposed location is not a warehouse or fulfillment center, but a consumer-facing megastore designed to blend groceries, household essentials, and general merchandise under one roof.

The project, first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times, would span roughly 230,000 square feet on a 35-acre site at the corner of 159th Street and LaGrange Road. Amazon has described the store as a “first-of-its-kind” concept, one that does not require a Prime membership to shop and will integrate online ordering with in-store pickup. Village officials approved the plan after a fast-moving review process, clearing the way for construction to begin later this year.

While Amazon has experimented with physical retail before, the scale and ambition of this project suggest the company believes it has found a new way to translate its digital dominance into in-person sales.

What Amazon is Building in Orland Park

According to documents reviewed by the Orland Park Plan Commission, the store will offer groceries, household goods, and general merchandise in a single trip, echoing the one-stop shopping model perfected by Walmart. Roughly half of the building will be devoted to customer browsing, while the remaining space will support back-of-house operations such as same-day order fulfillment and pickup.

Amazon told village officials that the store will include around 800 parking spaces, seven loading docks, and designated areas for online order returns and curbside pickup. Importantly, the company emphasized that the site will not function as a traditional e-commerce warehouse. As part of its approval, Amazon agreed the building would remain a retail store, not a fulfillment center, limiting its ability to quietly convert the site later.

The store is expected to create about 500 permanent jobs, roughly half of them full-time, along with approximately 200 temporary construction roles. Orland Park Mayor Jim Dodge said the project could generate substantial sales tax revenue and strengthen one of the village’s most important commercial corridors, a key reason local leaders backed the development despite some resident opposition.

Why Amazon is Betting Big on Brick-and-Mortar Again

Amazon’s renewed push into physical retail comes as the company faces a familiar problem. Despite dominating online shopping, it remains a relatively small player in grocery, one of the largest and most competitive retail categories in the U.S. According to data cited by Forbes, Amazon holds only about 3 percent of the physical grocery market, even after its $13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods. Walmart, by contrast, commands more than 20 percent with thousands of stores nationwide.

The Orland Park store appears designed to close that gap as Amazon envisions a hybrid model where customers can browse aisles, place orders at in-store kiosks, and have bulky items delivered directly to checkout or loaded into their cars. The store may also act as a local hub for buy-online-pickup-in-store orders, a service that has become standard across the retail industry.

An Amazon spokesperson told Forbes that the company “regularly tests new experiences designed to make customers’ lives better and easier every day,” framing the megastore as part of a broader effort to find the right physical format. Retail analysts quoted in the piece noted that Amazon’s previous attempts, including Amazon Go convenience stores and specialty concepts like Amazon 4-Star, produced mixed results. This new store represents a far larger, riskier experiment.

What the Megastore Could Mean for Shoppers and Communities

For shoppers, the Orland Park megastore could offer convenience and choice in a single location, especially for families already accustomed to Amazon’s ecosystem. By combining groceries with general merchandise and digital tools, the company hopes to make in-store shopping feel as efficient as ordering online.

For the surrounding community, the impact is more complicated. Some residents raised concerns during public hearings about traffic congestion and the speed of the approval process. A traffic study commissioned by Amazon projects daily vehicle trips in the area could increase by about 5 to 6 percent by 2033, even with planned road improvements. Village officials say new turn lanes, traffic signals, and infrastructure upgrades will help offset the increase.

Whether the concept succeeds remains an open question. As Forbes noted, Amazon is running up against fierce competition from Walmart, Costco, and other established big-box retailers located nearby. If the Orland Park store succeeds, it could become a template for future Amazon megastores across the country. If it fails, it will serve as another reminder that dominating online retail does not automatically translate to winning on Main Street.