MCLEAN, VA – Walgreens is continuing to roll out its massive flagship stores in the heart of major cities, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York and Los Angeles, USA Today reports.

Nearly twice the size of a standard Walgreens at 20,000 to 23,000 square feet, the stores feature self-serve frozen yogurt, sushi, a juice bar, beauty advisers, and manicure and brow-shaping stations.

The idea is to make Walgreens a one-stop shop for urban shoppers, “a cross between Target and Sephora,” USA Today wrote.

"What makes these stores unique is their size," said Beth Stiller, vice president of category strategy, innovation, and space management for Walgreens says. "As we started to push ourselves a little more in terms of what we can offer customers, we started to take a look at stores that were much larger than we're used to. We now had the content to fill them."

With their expanded product lines and urban locations, Walgreens is trying to grow its customer base while increasing basket size.

"They have such great transaction counts," Stiller said of the urban stores. "You've got so many customers coming by these locations; 20,000 to 30,000 people walk by everyday. You get great visibility."

Walgreens said daily sales at the flagships typically double those at its traditional stores. And the size of the stores are enough to deter would-be competitors.

"Like all flagships, they create a scale like this as a barrier to entry for competition," said Ken Nisch, head of retail design firm JGA. "This is throwing the gauntlet down and telling anyone else who wants to do this that they need to have their game on."