Thinking of opening a retail store.

[jinkazama]

Currently my family and I own a movie theatre in our small town and I'm also a manager at a Sprint retail store.

Well I moved about 45 minutes away from where I work and there is a huge up and coming area with a lot of good anchor stores (Kohls, Home Depot, Target and Best Buy) well my family and I were thinking about opening up a store around in that area, not many of the out parcels are taken yet, ones taken are by a gamestop and a couple of beauty supply stores. No cellphone retailers, so naturally since thats also what I do now we were looking at opening one of those up.

Any suggestions on which carrier to go with. I've talked around with sales reps from att,sprint and verizon and they're all equally as easy to get up and running. My main concern is, being an independent retailer with a single store would I be able to carry the iPhone if i went with ATT or the droid if i went with Verizon. I know with sprint we can pretty much carry any phone on the launch date, I just didnt know how it worked with other carriers.

Anybody have any info on this.

[chazzyphizzle]

can i have a job

[*Shinzon*]

I have a friend who used to be the asst. manager at a verizon shop, and I'd imagine you could stock any phone that you are authorized to sell. With that said I guess you'd have to ask the people who you'd be speaking to about opening a shop, which phones you would be authorized to sell at your store and if you'd have to meet any special requirements to get authorized. I mean I've never been to any store really that wasn't authorized to sell any major phone.

[jinkazama]

well I mean I know for the Evo and the Epic coming out on Aug. 31 we could only do direct ship only, order the phone on the customers account and the price of the phone goes on the bill. We still get commission for it, but we cant physically stock the phone in our cases.

I've been to a couple of podunk ATT retailers and they never seem to have the iPhone, I've never been inside a verizon store and really have no knowledge at all about verizon retailers so idk if the smaller privately owned retailers can stock the droid or not. I dont really see a point in opening up an ATT store if I cant stock the iPhone.

How is the rest of verizon's lineup outside of the droid2/droidx

[*Shinzon*]

Yeah, I really don't know. I was only in his shop a couple of times before he quit so I'm not exactly sure of the specifics. I have sprint but most people I know with Verizon seemingly have a blackberry or now recently some variation of the droids. Sprint has I guess the most boring lineup of the big 3, but I prefer the service over the others. Best bet is to just compile a list of questions and ask a rep over the phone what the restrictions and requirements are. It'll probably depend on the physical size of the store as well.

[Gadritan]

If you're seriously considering opening up a store, why not contact Sprint, Verizon, ATT etc and get the answers directly from them? They would know better than anyone else. Do some research on the demographics of the area etc to figure out what would more than likely sell the most as well. I'm kind of baffled how someone can seriously be considering opening a store without doing any real research. You obviously have internet access...use it. The answers you're seeking, and the contact information you need, are there.

[jinkazama]

well I've done research, I work for a sprint store and have contacted our reps and I know what we can sell at sprint, and I have an email into the ATT rep, just awaiting an answer so posted on BG in the mean time since its the weekend and I wouldnt get one until tomorrow or more likely tuesday.

demographic isnt a problem since i've been living there for the past 24yrs and already own the only source of entertainment in my town, that being the theatre. Honestly ATT would be the best bet but I've heard that ATT are stingy with the iphones when it comes to independent retailers, that was my only main reason for coming here. and mainly just to see if anybody here currently works for ATT or Verizon and to see if there are even any other good phones other than the iPhone for Droid2/x in their lineup.

[Boyiee]

Screw cell phones.

Open a Starbucks or Subway, make bank.

[Zeb]

The Starbucks down here haven't been doing too well. Open a 5 Guys Burgers... Then let me eat there for free.

[Boyiee]

dude don't open a five guys, you'll get so fat.

[jinkazama]

mmmmm five guys..

[Surealistic]

one of the main reasons verizon turned down the iphone the first time around was because apple wanted it to be sold by direct stores only, i know they've loosened up restrictions a bit, but they are still very tight about who they let sell it, meaning your new store probably will not be on the list to sell it, verizon on the other hand lets everyone sell all their phones, and depending on how good your sales manager is, you can get the latest and greatest sometimes a day or so before the direct stores

but when looking at opening a new store theres a few things you really want to consider,
1. how saturated is the market with stores already, meaning how many verizons are there if your considering that route, or sprint or w/e
2. study the coverage map for the area for EVERY carrier, i used to sell verizon in an area that att had no 3g coverage, tmobile was nonexistant, and sprint just gave up on, our verizon idr was fine with us being an upgrade store, cause thats all we did, everyone already had verizon, so new lines were few and far between
3. stand outside the other local retailers and quiz customers coming out on their experience, find out the weaknesses of your competitors

[Talus]

I thought Apple turned down VZN at first because Steve Jobs balked at having the iPhone branded with a Verizon logo on it like Verizon does to the rest of their phones? It wasn't so much VZN turning down Apple as the other way around, and now they're pretty much in bed with Google & the Android platform.

Definitely do your market research. Use Google maps and drive/walk around the prospective site for your shop. Follow the advice above.

[Surealistic]

that may have been part of it, whatever side you talk to will be a little different story, but i kinda see verizons side more, you get the phone into more hands when more people can sell it

but on the iphone note, being that i was a verizon salesman for 4 years, ive heard all the verizon iphone rumors since before it came out for att, but i honestly think now that it is coming very soon, like as in next year, if you want to become an overnight millionaire, go verizon, trust me

[Yabby]

that may have been part of it, whatever side you talk to will be a little different story, but i kinda see verizons side more, you get the phone into more hands when more people can sell it

but on the iphone note, being that i was a verizon salesman for 4 years, ive heard all the verizon iphone rumors since before it came out for att, but i honestly think now that it is coming very soon, like as in next year, if you want to become an overnight millionaire, go verizon, trust me

The day it comes out on verizon's network i'll buy one.... I had ATT about 4 years ago and couldn't use my phone half the time. Sad thing is my GF and I have been waiting for over two years for the Iphone to come out for Verizon. I'm sure the other phones they offer are good, i've seen/used some but i like all the app's that come with Iphone (Know the others have apps too but not as many/ones i want).

[Soa]

I wouldn't open a Subway to be honest. I know the guy who owns one near my job and he said about 90% of customers order only a $5 foot long, and that's the one thing that makes almost no money for him. He's trying to sell it but isn't getting any takers so far.

[jinkazama]

Right now we're waying two options.

Option 1) Opening up a retail center closer to where I am living currently. New up and coming retail development with a lot of good anchor stores to bring in good business. Its in a well established residential area that has been established for a good 4-5 years. We can open one up there with no problem but its in a bigger city so the next store is only like five minutes away. I'm worried that since they've been without any retail stores for so long that they've probably already developed relationships with those dealers and wouldnt be willing to change.

Option 2) Opening up an ATT store where my parents and I already own the local movie theatre. Yes I would still be having to drive 45 minutes to work each day but Im almost always over there for the theatre anyhow. Since I've been managing the Sprint store over there I've seen more and more people go to ATT because CDMA has fair to no coverage at all in my area. There's already a verizon store and Sprint so clearly the only other option is ATT. This is a smaller town, it can be broken into three halves. One half Rich, one half poor, and the third half is too dumb to work anything else other than a Nextel phone. Coverage wise tho ATT kicks the crap outta sprint and verizon in this town and the surrounding 30 miles. I have my Epic and my iPhone and nine times out of ten I'll pull out my iPhone mainly because the reception is better.

Option 2 honestly sounds the best imo but once again tho it all depends on how strict ATT is with their iPhones and I'm still waiting to hear back from the ATT reps. I would hate to spend all the overhead setting up a nice store just to watch customers drive an hour away and get an iPhone instead since I cant stock them. My father-in-law has the backflip and loves it and I've read reviews on all the other android based phones on ATT and they seem like great phones, but I've never heard of half of them and unfortunately thats all people care about these days lol.

Edit: Considered opening up a Mochi, its a frozen yogurt joint. Huge and up and coming in the surrounding areas but IDK if I wanna have to shell out royalties and have to deal with food and inspections out the ass

[Qalbert]

mmmmm five guys..

ause:

[BadKarma]

dude don't open a five guys, you'll get so fat.

Shake Shack is better.

[Surealistic]

dont count on getting the iphone