NATICK – When it comes to the best malls in Massachusetts, I often find myself partial to the Burlington Mall because of how many times I visited it as a kid, its inclusion of a Rainforest Cafe restaurant, and the fact that Paul Blart: Mall Cop conducted principal photography there. However, just because Burlington is the quintessential mall – a place so recognizable to everyone in the country that it's where mall movies get filmed – it's not the mall where elite stores congregate. That would be the Natick Mall.

The Natick Mall has all the average quick service food locations, stores, and kiosks that you would expect a mall in the United States to have, including some prominent space provided to Macy's, Dave and Buster's, and more premier businesses. Quite possibly the biggest entry into the repertoire of locations at the Natick Mall to come along in over a decade just opened its doors today, and it is trying to make a case for itself as a one-stop shop.

Online retailer Amazon has been venturing into physical stores for some time now and a Massachusetts-based foothold has just been launched by the multi-billion dollar tech conglomerate.

Amazon's first foray into physical stores included locations like Amazon Books and Amazon Go, which were specifically intent on narrowing the focus of the products sold by the company. This particular store in the Natick Mall, however, is one of Amazon's fledgling "4-star store" concepts, which aims to bring the website to life. They're going about this by having similar categories that the online version has, like the most popular and most recommended items. But they are also offering the same wide selection of products as they do online.

So far, stores like these have been opened in Colorado, California, New York, and Washington and they seem to be relatively successful. We'll have to play the waiting game before declaring the Natick, Massachusetts edition of the store to be a success, as well.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash