Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Alpha8472
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Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Post by Alpha8472 »

A busy Verizon store near a Walmart just shut down without warning. There are tons of UPS notices saying they have undelivered packages.

It has been closed for days. Perhaps COVID has struck again and everyone in the store is in quarantine? Could they not just get employees from another store to take over? Or maybe too many people just quit all at once?

I don't know how the company works. Is each store separate or can employees from other stores work in any store?
storewanderer
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Re: Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Post by storewanderer »

Is it a corporate Verizon or a dealer? These cell phone dealer stores, I have seen this type of thing happen a lot over the years, they closed suddenly without notice often leaving fixtures inside, marketing signs on the windows, etc. I have seen this with every major carrier. It used to be much more common than it is now.

Sometimes the corporate will step in and run it for a while, if they want to preserve the location.

That is why there was once a corporate AT&T Wireless in Bishop, CA (they eventually found another dealer for it) and also one in Elko, NV (I think this one actually got to stay corporate).
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Re: Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Post by ClownLoach »

storewanderer wrote: August 22nd, 2021, 4:55 pm Is it a corporate Verizon or a dealer? These cell phone dealer stores, I have seen this type of thing happen a lot over the years, they closed suddenly without notice often leaving fixtures inside, marketing signs on the windows, etc. I have seen this with every major carrier. It used to be much more common than it is now.

Sometimes the corporate will step in and run it for a while, if they want to preserve the location.

That is why there was once a corporate AT&T Wireless in Bishop, CA (they eventually found another dealer for it) and also one in Elko, NV (I think this one actually got to stay corporate).
Most of the wireless stores are now individual dealer franchises. It used to be easy to tell as the dealers would have cheap interiors and would not be able to provide customer service beyond selling phones. Now the carriers are building out the store to ensure a consistent branding experience - T-Mobile is going the best with this as you can't tell the difference between a dealer and company store anymore other than the dealer will have a tiny sticker near the door stating the franchisee. I do not believe that the company owned stores are going to be around much longer with the current 99% estimated penetration rate of cell phones in American households and only 3 remaining carriers. Everyone has a phone and they get replacements and customer service online. The remaining dealer stores are going to get sold off one at a time to suckers looking for a "great business opportunity" like a Subway sandwich shop franchise.
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Re: Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Post by Alpha8472 »

It is a corporate store by looking at the Verizon website. I see the difference now. The authorized retailer stores used to look very limited in what they offered. The corporate stores seem really well stocked with all kinds of merchandise. Victra seems to own many of these dealer stores.
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Re: Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Post by ClownLoach »

Alpha8472 wrote: August 22nd, 2021, 6:45 pm It is a corporate store by looking at the Verizon website. I see the difference now. The authorized retailer stores used to look very limited in what they offered. The corporate stores seem really well stocked with all kinds of merchandise. Victra seems to own many of these dealer stores.
Verizon is strange. They have very aggressive tactics. In a mall near my house there was a extremely busy Verizon store that they closed as a negotiating ploy with the landlord, demanding a rent reduction on their lease renewal. Brown paper in the windows and covered their signs. The landlord realized Verizon means business, didn't have a replacement tenant lined up, and caved in. Amazing how fast Verizon not only reopened the store, but also fully remodeled it a few months later with their ugly new minimalist decor. Looks like a Chipotle that sells phones. Could be they not only remanded a rent reduction but also demanded remodel dollars.

Verizon couldn't care less about their customers as they continue to maintain the mentality that they are #1 in market share so they can make their customers drive further. I can't wait to see how bad things will get when the big 3 carriers close down their non 4G/5G networks in the next 6 months and thousands of towers go dark for reconfiguration to 5G. (Which really isn't even a "thing" but is all marketing - they take the old frequencies that they've been using for years and just make them a more compressed digital format - now they are "5G" as if they're really a new generation product).

Right now landlords are running scared in "A" quality malls - if a tenant wants to close their unit within the mall they will do anything to retain them. Otherwise they fall like dominoes. The perception of a prime brand like Verizon closing in your mall is that now your mall is no longer an "A" and as such other mall based retailers start to bail.
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Re: Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Post by mbz321 »

ClownLoach wrote: August 22nd, 2021, 5:09 pm
T-Mobile is going the best with this as you can't tell the difference between a dealer and company store anymore other than the dealer will have a tiny sticker near the door stating the franchisee. I do not believe that the company owned stores are going to be around much longer with the current 99% estimated penetration rate of cell phones in American households and only 3 remaining carriers. Everyone has a phone and they get replacements and customer service online. The remaining dealer stores are going to get sold off one at a time to suckers looking for a "great business opportunity" like a Subway sandwich shop franchise.

I thought Tmobile (excluding Metro) was moving away from 'dealer' stores. Just about all the locations in my area are corporate owned.

But yeah, I am always amazed so many cell phone stores manage to hang around. In all the years I've had a cell phone, I've only had to go to an actual carrier store one time when they screwed up setting up my account a very long time ago. All my phones have been bought unlocked online (or one time at Best Buy in an emergency). (And with most MVNO's like Mint Mobile, RedPocket, etc, being a much better value, there's even less of a reason for actual carrier stores).
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Re: Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Post by storewanderer »

mbz321 wrote: August 24th, 2021, 8:05 am I thought Tmobile (excluding Metro) was moving away from 'dealer' stores. Just about all the locations in my area are corporate owned.

But yeah, I am always amazed so many cell phone stores manage to hang around. In all the years I've had a cell phone, I've only had to go to an actual carrier store one time when they screwed up setting up my account a very long time ago. All my phones have been bought unlocked online (or one time at Best Buy in an emergency). (And with most MVNO's like Mint Mobile, RedPocket, etc, being a much better value, there's even less of a reason for actual carrier stores).
I took a look at T-Mobile's website and most of the locations in my area seem to be dealer stores. There is one former corporate Sprint that is corporate T-Mobile, and two former Radio Shacks that are corporate T-Mobile. This is a recent development; those were previously converted to T-Mobile dealers. I also see one where a T-Mobile dealer was closed and in the same shopping center what was previously a Sprint (thought was a dealer... maybe not) is now a corporate T-Mobile.

I notice traffic is really slow at the corporate AT&T Stores. Many of these stores closed during COVID and I was really surprised to see so many of them even open back up after restrictions lifted. Similar to physical branches with a counter inside of banks, I think cell phone stores will be with us much longer than many of us deem a reason to visit them often (or at all).
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Re: Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: August 24th, 2021, 6:51 pm Similar to physical branches with a counter inside of banks, I think cell phone stores will be with us much longer than many of us deem a reason to visit them often (or at all).

This is going way off topic now, but that's another one I don't understand. Meanwhile when other banks are closing many of their branches, Chase just decided to enter the Philly area and is constructing brand new branches everywhere....I don't see the point. Especially for those that use physical branches often (mainly the elderly), are they really going to switch from the bank they've been with to Chase? Citibank tried the same expansion in 2006 and ended up pulling out and closing all remaining branches in 2013.
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Re: Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Post by kr.abs.swy »

mbz321 wrote: August 24th, 2021, 7:11 pm
storewanderer wrote: August 24th, 2021, 6:51 pm Similar to physical branches with a counter inside of banks, I think cell phone stores will be with us much longer than many of us deem a reason to visit them often (or at all).

This is going way off topic now, but that's another one I don't understand. Meanwhile when other banks are closing many of their branches, Chase just decided to enter the Philly area and is constructing brand new branches everywhere....I don't see the point. Especially for those that use physical branches often (mainly the elderly), are they really going to switch from the bank they've been with to Chase? Citibank tried the same expansion in 2006 and ended up pulling out and closing all remaining branches in 2013.
They want to have coast-to-coast coverage so they are doing some infill in regions where they don't currently have a presence. They are too big to grow by mergers (regulators wouldn't allow it). These new branches will put them in areas where they don't currently have a presence so they can be even more of a coast-to-coast bank. The difference is that they won't be building dense networks in these new cities (I assume). Chase is great at marketing and if anyone can get clients to move from their current bank, it will be Chase.
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Re: Verizon Store Sudden Closure

Post by Alpha8472 »

The store is empty of merchandise now. There are signs telling customers that they are temporarily closed and to go to other Verizon stores or go online. It looks like they are abandoning this store. I doubt they will ever open again.
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