Amazon is still contemplating its own mini-stores inside shopping malls. After the company decided earlier this year to close the many kiosks it had maintained at malls, a few new ones have cropped up. These new stores are called “Presented by Amazon.”
Unlike the previous mall kiosks, which were showcases for Amazon products like Fire TV, Kindle and the Echo, this new approach offers a themed selection of top brands, frequently updated. So, as with its Amazon 4-star retail stores, it sounds like the selection at Presented by Amazon will be rotated out on a regular basis, and obviously won’t be limited to Amazon’s own products.
There are only four Presented by Amazon locations at the moment, with two in California and one each in Nevada and Illinois. Amazon was operating 87 mall kiosks as of March before announcing that they’d all be closing down. “After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program, and are instead expanding Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star, where we provide a more comprehensive customer experience and broader selection,” says an Amazon spokesperson.
But clearly Amazon thinks putting itself in malls is still worth it. Amazon’s website shows one Presented by Amazon space as being outdoors, but others are very much traditional kiosks, such as the one at the Century City mall.
Aside from 4-star, Amazon also continues to open new locations for its Amazon Go stores, most recently in New York City. Last month, the company said it would start accepting cash at the Go stores, which were originally positioned as wholly automated and cashier-free locations.
