ORLAND PARK, ILLINOIS — Amazon plans to build large-format stores that combine a supercenter format with a robotics-powered warehouse, according to internal documents. The effort, known internally as Project Kobe, will first launch in Orland Park, Illinois.

The planned stores will combine grocery and general merchandise with an embedded automated fulfillment center handling in-store shopping, pickup, and delivery from the same building. Each Kobe store will have a floor area of about 225,000 square feet, with a large portion dedicated to automated storage, picking, and packaging as a core part of the store.

Amazon told the Orland Park Plan Commission in January that about 100,000 square feet of the Orland Park Kobe store would be dedicated to warehouse space, roughly half of the building, according to Orland Park Plan Commission filings. The warehouse uses a robotic storage system from AutoStore, a warehouse-automation company, that employs a grid of stacked bins with robots moving across the top to retrieve items, according to internal documents.

Amazon is planning additional Kobe store sites in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Edison, New Jersey; and Oak Brook, Illinois, according to internal documents. The documents reference plans to potentially open dozens of Kobe stores if early pilots prove successful.

Internal documents estimate that Kobe stores will display or store about 250,000 items, nearly double the number carried by most Walmart stores. The concept uses AI-driven tools to determine store inventory.

Internal projections expect overall costs of Kobe stores to be higher than Amazon's existing operations. Each item in Kobe stores will cost about 12% more to fulfill than through Amazon's sub-same-day delivery network, according to internal projections. Perishable grocery orders could cost almost $2 per unit to fulfill, roughly 10% more than Amazon's sub-same-day deliveries, internal documents estimate.

Many items in Kobe stores are still picked from the sales floor, requiring workers to walk more than 500 feet to retrieve products from the sales floor to the fulfillment area, according to internal documents. Future Kobe sites are expected to shift more grocery inventory to the back of the facility to reduce sales floor congestion, though internal documents warn this could introduce new constraints around refrigeration and warehouse space.

The proposed Kobe store in Orland Park is estimated to require $33 million in capital expenditure, according to internal documents. An Amazon spokesperson said the concept for Kobe stores is still in early development. "The new supercenter concept we are testing will make it convenient for customers to shop a broad selection of quality products at great value across fresh groceries, household essentials, and general merchandise — all in one trip."

Amazon recently shut down its Go and Fresh store networks. The company holds 3% of the US grocery market, according to Numerator, while Walmart holds 21%.