Amazon’s 229,000-Square-Foot Retail Behemoth Lands in Illinois: A Physical Giant Awakens

Amazon just dropped a brick-and-mortar bombshell—a 229,000-square-foot retail colossus is officially on the Illinois docket. Forget digital carts; this is about real parking lots.

The Scale of the Play

Let's talk numbers. 229,000 square feet isn't just a store; it's a statement. That's enough space to warehouse entire city blocks of inventory, dwarfing most traditional big-box footprints. It's a physical manifestation of data-driven demand forecasting, built at a scale only Amazon's logistics brain could justify.

Why Illinois, Why Now?

The Midwest isn't a test market anymore—it's a strategic heartland. This move screams distribution efficiency, tapping into central U.S. supply chains. It's about cutting the final mile down to the final few blocks, leveraging that infamous Amazon delivery speed to pull customers off the digital fence and into a physical experience. Think instant gratification, but you carry the box to your car yourself.

The Omnichannel Endgame

This isn't retail nostalgia. It's a calculated fusion. Imagine scanning a QR code on a shelf to see a thousand color variants, or returning that online impulse buy without a label. The store becomes a showroom, a warehouse, and a customer service hub all at once. It bypasses the limitations of a screen, letting you touch, try, and walk out with it—no delivery window required.

A physical footprint this massive recalibrates the entire local retail ecosystem. Competitors aren't just facing another store; they're facing the logistical and data firepower of the world's most sophisticated shopping algorithm, now with a front door. It forces a rethink of what 'convenience' even means.

The finance crowd will, of course, obsess over the capex and the margin squeeze of physical retail. They'll fret over the ROI on all that square footage while missing the point: this is about owning the entire customer journey, from click to curb. Sometimes you have to spend old-economy dollars to secure next-decade dominance. The real asset isn't the building—it's the irreversible shift in consumer expectation it engineers.

Borrowing from traditional retail playbook

A spokesperson told Business Insider the project represents another way the company is testing methods to make shopping easier for customers.

The concept isn’t exactly new. These types of big-box stores have been around in the United States since 1988, when Walmart introduced its first Supercenter format near St. Louis. Today, Walmart runs about 4,600 locations across the country.

Amazon already has various types of physical stores, though they’re generally smaller. Current operations include 58 Amazon Fresh supermarkets, 14 Go quick-service locations, and more than 500 Whole Foods Markets nationwide.

Company figures show over 150 million American consumers bought groceries through Amazon in 2024, bringing in sales exceeding $100 billion.

While existing Amazon stores focus heavily on food, the new Orland Park plan calls for a wider product mix. That means adding items like home goods and clothing that grocery shoppers might want to grab.

The MOVE comes as conventional retailers such as Walmart and Target strengthen their online operations, while Amazon borrows strategies from traditional store-based selling.

Rush pickup service in development

On a separate front, the company is working on a “rush” collection service that would let shoppers grab their purchases at Amazon-operated stores within 60 minutes, according to internal paperwork and someone familiar with the plans.

The service would let customers order from both Amazon’s website inventory and items available inside Amazon’s physical locations, documents show. A test run is planned for at least one metro area by early 2026, though the timeline could change, according to the source who asked not to be identified.

The program would build on Amazon’s push for really fast delivery times. Just last week, the company started Amazon Now, offering 30-minute delivery in parts of Seattle and Philadelphia. Similar quick-delivery tests are happening in the United Kingdom, India, and Mexico.

Right now, pickup options at Amazon include next-day collection for some web orders. Grocery program members can pick up certain products in as little as 30 minutes.

Click-and-collect market booming

Store pickup services, what people call “click-and-collect,” are growing fast. American sales through these services should hit $112.96 billion this year, a 17% jump from 2023, and climb to $129.33 billion by 2027, research firm eMarketer projects. The firm estimates about 152.9 million Americans, or 68% of online buyers, will use click-and-collect in 2025.

Amazon dominates total online sales, but Walmart might have an edge when it comes to delivery speed. With more than 4,600 American stores, Walmart can reach about 95% of households within three hours. Walmart leads click-and-collect with projected sales of $38.50 billion this year, eMarketer data shows.

Internal documents seen by Business Insider suggest Amazon sees the rush pickup service as addressing what customers want, quicker access to products, while making better use of its stores and shipping networks. The pilot program will help figure out whether people actually want rapid pickup and how to blend online and in-store shopping, documents stated.

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