Amazon has had a long and complicated history with brick-and-mortar retail, with many of its ventures shutting down after mixed results. However, the retail giant is attempting another launch of its own branded physical stores.
Amazon now plans to open a sprawling 229,000-square-foot big box store near Chicago in the suburb of Orland Park. The store will offer a wide range of products, including groceries and general merchandise, as well as accessory services and potential prepared food options. The store will have a limited warehouse component, but this is intended to support on-site operations, rather than serving as a distribution center for online orders.
According to CNBC, the Orland Park Plan Commission has approved Amazon’s proposal, but it will still need a vote of approval from the village board, with the meeting scheduled for Jan. 19.
Many Orland Park residents voiced concerns about the new development, with one telling CBS News that he was worried about how the roads would accommodate the volume of trucks going to the store each day. Amazon claimed the move could drive tax revenue for Orland Park and provide long-term “financial support for municipal services and capital improvements” in the area.
In 2023, Amazon shut down eight of its Amazon Go convenience stores, citing weak sales growth. The high-tech stores, which started appearing in 2018, allowed users to avoid interacting with cashiers entirely. Consumers could simply walk out of the store with their items and have their cards charged automatically, provided they had been linked to an Amazon account first, using data from Amazon’s cameras and sensors.
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Amazon also closed both of its Amazon Style clothing stores back in 2023. And despite the company’s continued dominance in the world of online books, all its 24 Amazon Books stores, which first launched in Seattle in 2015, eventually bit the dust in 2022. The wave of closures also hit all its themed pop-up shops, as well as its 4-star product stores.
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