Amazon is attempting to break into the physical retail market again. Village officials in Orland Park, Ill., recently voted to approve Amazon's plan to build a 228,000-square-foot mega store near Chicago that is "roughly the size of a newer, larger Walmart Supercenter," Business Insider reported.
According to planning documents, the facility would offer groceries and general merchandise, as well as other services and prepared food options. Customers would also be able to place and receive online orders on-site. There was no mention of whether in-store book sales would be part of the operation.
Katie Jahnke Dale, an attorney for Amazon, told the planning commission that the plan is "a more purpose-built and thoughtful" approach to traditional big-box stores, the Orland Park Patch reported. "This is a retail concept, a retail store, albeit with perhaps a larger storeroom in the back, which will allow us to enhance the customer experience," she added.
"The site in question is our planned location for a new concept that we think customers will be excited about," an Amazon spokesperson told BI, which noted: "If all this sounds familiar, it's probably because hypermarkets like this one have been a staple of American retail since 1988, when Walmart opened its first Supercenter outside St. Louis. Walmart now has about 4,600 U.S. stores."
Amazon currently operates 58 Amazon Fresh grocery stores, 14 Go convenience locations, and more than 500 Whole Foods Markets. "Where those stores primarily focus on food, the new plan calls for a much broader range of merchandise, such as housewares or apparel, that can complement grocery shoppers' carts," BI wrote. "As traditional retailers like Walmart and Target ramp up their e-commerce efforts, Amazon is taking a few pages from the brick-and-mortar playbook as well."