Thoughts on Amazon’s planned mega box store? Amazon is in the early stages of pl
By Maarja Anderson Hewitt · February 10, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Thoughts on Amazon’s planned mega box store?
Amazon is in the early stages of planning for a massive brick-and-mortar retail store in Orland Park, Illinois. It would be roughly 225,000+ square feet, which is similar to a Walmart Supercenter.
I'm intrigued.
The timing is what makes this especially interesting. The plans surfaced the same month Amazon announced closures of Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh locations, while doubling down on Whole Foods.
Amazon has been trying to crack the brick-and-mortar code for years.
Is this the model that finally works? Maybe. This isn’t a traditional store. It’s a hybrid:
- In-store shopping + online ordering
- Pickup + delivery built into the same footprint
- Tech-driven discovery (phones, kiosks, automation)
- Potential on-site warehouse/logistics capabilities
To me, this looks less like Amazon trying to beat Walmart at retail and more like Amazon trying to reinvent what a big-box store is. Will it work? Time will tell!!