A Pokmon Go gym inside the Colonie Center mall in Albany.
With the Pokmon Go fever still shaking half the world, there’s bound to be plenty of trainers at any crowded place, and businesses can either fight it or embrace it.
The Colonie Center mall in Albany has decided to make the best of the situation. As seen on Reddit, the mall built a real life Pokmon Go arena for players.
With little more than a large Pok Ball on the floor, a few cardboard posters and team flags posted overhead, the “gym” is little more than a marketing gimmick. But it’s a smart one. There’s bound to be plenty of Pokmon Go players there at any time (as proven by this Imgur gallery of the same spot), so offering these customers something extra is likely a good idea.
The mall is also organizing Pokmon Go events and giveaways, boasting “3 on-site Pokestops and plenty of Pokmon loose throughout the center.”
This is one of many examples in which the megapopular augmented reality game influenced actual reality. It saved an ice cream shop in Anacortes, Washington from going out of business, and a churros shop in Westminster, California added a Pikachu-shaped churro to draw in customers.
