Amazon killed brick-and-mortar retail. Now they’re building their biggest brick-and-mortar store ever. 230,000 square feet in suburban Chicago. Big enough to fit two Target stores inside. Half retail, half fulfillment center. This is the company that made physical stores obsolete. I needed a new Mac charger last week. I could get in my car, drive to the Apple Store or Walmart. Or I could open Amazon and have it delivered same day. I never left my desk. That’s the business Amazon built. Why are they now pouring capital into the model they destroyed? Maybe it’s this bet: groceries still happen in person. Over 80% of retail sales are offline. Most of that is weekly food runs. Amazon wants that trip. Problem is, Costco owns it. Walmart owns it. Target owns it. Breaking shopping routines takes more than shelf space. It takes differentiation. Amazon’s pitch: digital kiosks, curbside pickup for heavy items, separate entrances for delivery drivers. That’s logistics dressed up as retail innovation. Look at their track record. Amazon Go convenience stores? Opened dozens, closed more than half. Fresh grocery stores? Needed a complete overhaul. Their wins came from buying Whole Foods. $13.5 billion for someone else’s working model. Now they’re going bigger. More capital. More risk. Longer payback periods. Scale doesn’t fix a broken concept. It just loses money faster. Maybe they see distribution advantages I’m missing. These aren’t just stores. They’re fulfillment centers with a retail front. That second entrance for delivery drivers might be the real play. But I keep coming back to the charger. Amazon already solved retail. They made it frictionless. Building giant stores feels like solving yesterday’s problem. What am I missing here?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ https://lnkd.in/eSyXJRhD