Crossgates to get Amazon store
Shops, which sell items highly rated by shoppers, expected to open “soon”
Amazon plans a bricks-andmortar foray into the Capital Region with a new Amazon 4-star store set to open “soon” at Crossgates Mall. The store, one of 31 either open or planned by the behemoth online retailer nationwide, would be only the second one in the entire state.
Amazon’s 4-star stores carry items that have garnered at least a four-star rating from Amazon customers, as well as top sellers and a selection of “new and trending” items. Products range from Bose wireless headphones to coffee makers, knapsacks, and
graphing calculators.
Amazon says customers can testdrive electronics and other devices, learn about products like Amazon’s Alexa, find toys and games, and even buy books.
The store is on the upper level of the mall, not far from Lord & Taylor and almost directly above the mall’s Apple store.
“Everything old is new again,” said Ted Potrikus, president and CEO of the Retail Council of New York State. He said the news “doesn’t surprise me in the least,” adding that Amazon likely was looking for a critical mass of foot traffic where its store could get plenty of exposure.
It’s not clear how soon the store will open. A spokesperson for Crossgates referred questions to Amazon. Amazon by early afternoon hadn’t yet responded to a request for comment.
Potrikus added that mall locations probably aren’t commanding top dollar right now.
The Lord & Taylor store, for example, is in the midst of a store closing sale after filing a week ago for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Amazon also has begun opening physical stores offering food (Amazon Go), and books, as well as Amazon Pop-up stores. The Amazon Go stores use sensors to track items as shoppers remove them from shelves, keep a running total of their purchases, and charge their Amazon account automatically when they leave the store.
There are no checkout lines. Bloomberg reported in 2018 that Amazon might open as many as 3,000 Amazon Go stores.
“They’re at the crest of the creativity wave all of the time,” Potrikus said. “Amazon knows what we want long before we do.”
On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon also was in talks with mall operator Simon Property Group about the possibility of converting vacant Sears and Jcpenney stores in Simon’s malls into Amazon warehouses. Amazon’s Whole Foods market already occupies a section of the shuttered Sears store at Colonie Center, where Amazon has also installed Amazon lockers where customers can pick up their online purchases.
There was no immediate word whether Amazon might also be looking at the rest of the Sears space at Colonie Center. Amazon is nearing completion of a massive distribution center near Interstate 90 in the town of Schodack.
CNBC reported last year that Amazon was planning to close all of its pop-up stores, but the Amazon website lists seven stores nationwide still in operation. Many of the popup stores were set up inside Whole Foods markets, which Amazon owns, and Kohl’s, according to CNBC.
The only other Amazon 4-star store in New York state is at 72 Spring St. in Manhattan’s Soho neighborhood.