Skip to main content

Google might be opening a retail store in Chicago

Google might be opening a retail store in Chicago

/

Just two blocks from its Midwestern HQ

Share this story

The Google logo on a colorful, geometric background
Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Google’s latest plan to tackle the retail market involves a two-floor store in Chicago’s Fulton Market. If it pans out, this would be the tech company’s first permanent retail location. The space would total 14,000 square feet across several interconnected brick buildings, according to The Chicago Tribune. This planned store would be several blocks south of the company’s Midwest HQ.

This isn’t Google’s first attempt at a brick-and-mortar store, which would be a prime locale to show off its ever-growing selection of hardware products. But until now, Google’s been relegated to the occasional pop-up and “stores within stores” in the US and UK, sectioning off space to show demos of Chromebooks, smart speakers, and phones.

This isn’t Google’s first attempt at a retail space

Google declined to comment to the Tribune, but if the rumored standalone space becomes a reality, then it would be the latest in the the company’s long line of attempts to crack the retail market. Previously, it spent millions renovating a planned 5,000-square-foot retail space in New York’s swanky SoHo district before ultimately abandoning these plans and leasing the space out instead.