Amazon is going big — really big — in Chicago, unveiling plans for a 230,000-square-foot mega-store outside the city that would be larger than the average Walmart and nearly big enough to swallow two Targets whole, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The move is Amazon’s boldest brick-and-mortar gamble yet — and arguably its riskiest — as the e-commerce giant tries once again to crack a crowded, unforgiving big-box market it has repeatedly struggled to conquer.

The planned store in Orland Park, Illinois, would split its massive footprint in half: one side for groceries, household staples, and prepared food, the other for an unusually large back-of-house operation designed to fulfill online orders and support Amazon’s trademark convenience.

“It’s purpose-built for what we see retail customers demand today,” Katie Jahnke Dale, a lawyer representing Amazon, told local officials this month.

Amazon is pitching the store as a friction-free hybrid of online and in-person shopping. Customers could order alternate sizes or colors at in-store kiosks, schedule bulky items to be loaded directly into their cars, and pick up online orders without ever stepping into the retail aisles.

Local officials worried the building would function more like a warehouse than a store — concerns Amazon dismissed, saying the massive fulfillment space is needed to keep online orders and in-store shopping separate.

But Amazon’s big-box ambitions come with baggage.

The company has closed dozens of physical retail locations, slashed its once-hyped Amazon Go cashierless stores to just 14 nationwide, and stumbled badly with its Amazon Fresh rollout before revamping the concept. Even now, Fresh remains a work in progress in a market already saturated with grocery options.

Analysts say Amazon’s size — and its data — are both its biggest advantage and its biggest bet.

“Most people don’t do their weekly grocery visit on Amazon,” said Colin Sebastian, a senior research analyst with Baird. “But most people do buy batteries or new HDMI cables or laptops on Amazon.”

Sebastian said Amazon will likely lean heavily on its Prime membership data to stock the store with items local customers already buy online — a strategy designed to turn browsing into habit and convenience into loyalty.

Still, critics question whether convenience alone is enough.

“Let’s be honest: Do we need an Amazon big-box store? The honest answer is no, not really, the market is already very saturated,” said Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData. “I’m curious to see what they do to drive the foot traffic.”

The Orland Park Board of Trustees voted 5–2 to approve the project, allowing Amazon to purchase the 35-acre site and begin demolition. The store could open as soon as next year — and if it works, more could follow.

If it doesn’t, Amazon’s Chicago mega-store could join a growing list of big ideas that proved easier to sell online than on Main Street.