Albany Mall — Attraction in Albany

The Albany Mall is one of the last few major shopping venues in Albany. We've lost one of the major Anchor stores, Sears, but still have a JC Penney's, Dillard's, and Belk's, along with a Books-a-Million. There used to be a Sears Auto Center on the perimeter of the property, but of course that left with the main store.

Several other notable stores include: Chuck-E-Cheese located adjacent to the primary entrance; Best-Buy Mobile tucked into a corner of the Food Court; a pet store (Pet-Sense, I believe?) around the second wing of the mall near the entrance to JC Penney's. I'll include a more detailed list below.

The mall is overall kept pretty clean. I've found it's service personnel to be friendly and attentive. Food options are unfortunately limited, and what few non-branded options are there, are not all that great. Chick-fil-A, Auntie-Anne's, Cinnabon, and Great American Cookies are all up to par.

My biggest complaint though is the restrooms - Though they are kept clean, there is only one public set in the whole mall. They are tucked into a side hallway inside the mall, near the west entrance to Belk's. It's out of the way, and worse, out of public view. Even though I've never had an issue, I can't help but feel a little exposed every time I have to head down that hallway.

All that being said, it's not a bad place to do your shopping. I've heard wind of a few promising stores coming in to fill the void left by Sears. If anything major comes through, I'll update this post accordingly.

STORES LIST (Curr. May 2017)

Dining Venues:

Auntie Anne's Blue Moon Ice Cream Company Chick-fil-A (Chinese Place - I'll fill in the name later) Cinnabon Great American Cookies Joe Muggs (Located inside Books-a-Million) Red Brick Pizza Company Wing-Dixie

Entertainment/Electronics -

Best-Buy Mobile (Cellular Repair Shop - Will update name later) F.Y.E. Hallmark Store Toy Guy Southern Pastimes

Clothing/General Merchandise -

American Eagle Belk's Claire's (College Outfitter/Branded Merch. - Will update name later) Dillard's Dockers Foot Locker JC Penney's Jimmy Jazz Kirklands Lids Men's Warehouse (entrance outside the mall. To right of main entrance) Old Navy Rue 21 Shoe Dept. Encore Spencer's Apparel and Gifts Ta's Closest Boutique Toppers Apparrell Victoria's Secret & PINK

(More to Come)

Health/Wellness -

Bath & Body Works GNC Nutrition LensCrafters Natural Hair Wonders Salon (Salon 2 - Will update name later)

Jewelry

Friedman's Jewelers Kay Jewelers (Misc. Jewelry Store - Will update name later) Zales

Specialty -

(Convenience Store - Will update name later. Located by north entrance to Belk's) Event Space (Available to Rent for Parties/Etc) Event Space 2 (Same as above) Pet Sense

OUTSIDE PERIMETER:

Gander Mountain (Store will be closing down in near future) G&M Antiques Moe's Southwest Grill Quality Inn at the Albany Mall Toys-r-Us Verizon Wireless

(Will periodically update list as new stores are...

the mall and staff were nice and whatever, but there wasn’t really any shops so we were heading out of the store to leave when we saw puppies in “ Pets & Pals “ , We (me and my family) didn’t expect the store to be gorgeous or anything , but what we did expect was the pets to be cared for , but let me tell you , i have never seen a pet store THAT horrible, let me give you a semi-detailed introduction. the entrance of the store had an iguana in the front window on display, personally i have no idea what an iguana enclosure should look like , nor what a healthy iguana should look like , however i know for a FACT they did something to that poor baby, the holes in the enclosure were big enough for the iguana to get out easily , but it didn’t move at all , it looked sick . Now giving this the benefit of the doubt (bad choice) we proceeded into the store to look at the puppies , they looked fine but they were expensive so we walked past (we had no intention of buying anything) I, a cat lover , saw 5 kittens (mind you in a FERRET cage), these poor kittens looked so sick , they literally had red eyes , and a whole load of stuff projecting out of their nose , ( pics of the kittens below ) , all of the enclosures had old , and shredded news paper in it , the Guinea pigs literally did not make a peep , and as an ex Guinea pig owner , if they see people they squeal like never before , but these ? Nothing . Oh and that’s not even it , every single beta fish in that store was dead ( visibly ), there were rabbits that didn’t look healthy but had a reasonably sized cage ( surprisingly); and there was also 2 baby goats in an Amazon sized box ( 20 square feet ) which really is not very spacious , and the baby goats were hitting the walls and even each other , this store is...

Sadly, the Albany mall has began to decay and continues to lose vital retailers to maintain a diverse group of shopping needs for all consumers in our area. Being a former employee of the mall and residing in the community I've witnessed it during both it's high peaks of success and now at its lowest potential. Being a marketeer, I understand the development of the mall sector has greatly changed across the nation with the emergence and popularity of online shopping. Ecommerce is the downfall of the traditional Brick & Mortar. Because a tool that was to increase incremental sales and encourage convenience for consumers, along with being readily available to anyone regardless of where they resided has taken over and is monopolizing traditional retailers. Honestly, I could go on and on, but I will not. I will simply say that the Albany mall suffers the plagues of high online traffic, lack of modern appeal in infrastructure and trendy retail presence, such as H&M, Forever21, Charlotte Russe, etc to successfully compete at a fair advantage in a dying phase of shopping malls in the new millennium. I still hopeful someone with true passion will step in and resuscitate, along with renovate this structure to revitalize its life as a self sufficient shopping...