PROVIDENCE – Amazon.com Inc. has long been known for disrupting the traditional retail shopping economy through convenient, online sales and quick delivery.
But in a reverse from its typical sales model, Amazon is expanding its footprint of brick-and-mortar stores, with plans to open a new “Amazon 4-star” location at Providence Place mall. Amazon said the store is “coming soon” to Suite 3145 at the mall, but a company spokesperson said additional details are not yet available about when it would open.
The company opened its first Amazon 4-star store in 2018 in New York City, but this year reports from the Wall Street Journal and others indicate that the company is now seeking larger, department store facilities for additional locations.
In an email message to Providence Business News, an Amazon spokesperson said there are currently 33 Amazon 4-star stores in the U.S. The stores take some of the most popular items sold on the website and bring them to the shelves.
“Amazon 4-star is a store designed to help customers discover products they will love,” said spokesperson Kelsey Friedrich. “It’s a physical store that carries a highly curated selection of products from the top categories across Amazon.com, including devices, consumer electronics, toys, games, books, kitchen, home and more.”
The name of the store comes from the inventory mostly being rated as a 4-star item or higher by users of Amazon’s online shopping platform, Friedrich said. Other items sold there will include those rated as a “top seller” on the website, or they are considered “new and trending.”
Friedrich said more details about the Providence location would become available closer to the store’s opening.
The company is now recruiting employees for the new store, with classified ads listed online for prospective retail associates, with a starting wage of $16.50 per hour with benefits.
This news just a few months after Amazon reached a tax stabilization deal with the town of Johnston to build a six-story, 3.8 million-square-foot warehouse and delivery center that will employ 1,500 people.
There are two Amazon 4-star stores in Massachusetts, with one that opened in Milbury last year at the Shoppes in Blackstone Valley, and another that opened in 2019 at the Natick Mall.
In addition to its Amazon 4-star stores, the company also operates retail locations Amazon Books, Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, where shoppers don’t need to check out, but instead using the company’s Just Walk Out Technology that sends customers the bill electronically after they leave the store. The Amazon 4-star stores offer deals to subscribers of Amazon’s Prime expedited home delivery service.
Marc Larocque is a PBN staff writer. Contact him at Larocque@PBN.com.
