Amazon Is Planning Walmart-Style Big Box Store Near Chicago

Group 1 - Amazon.com Inc. is planning to open a 229,000-square-foot store in the Chicago area, focusing on groceries and general merchandise, aiming to compete with big-box retailers like Walmart and Target [1] - The proposed store will include a limited warehouse component to support the store's operations, but it will not function as a distribution center [2] - The site for the new store is currently a vacant restaurant located on 35 acres [2] Group 2 - Amazon has previously experimented with various physical store formats from 2015 to 2020, including bookstores and automated grab-and-go stores, but many of these initiatives were scaled back during the pandemic [3] - The company's significant entry into physical retail was marked by the 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods Market, which expanded its presence to over 400 supermarkets across the country [4]