Dialing into Wireless

BJ's Wholesale Club (Natick, Mass.) has hired Wireless Retail Inc. to sell wireless phone, satellite TV and broadband services via a store-in-store program at all 140 BJ's outlets.

Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Wireless Retail will provide a turnkey store-in-store program, utilizing an open store fixture that encourages interaction between WRI sales associates and BJ's customers. Wireless Retail will hire, train and manage all staff for the shops.

Wireless Retail partnered with Design Forum (Dayton, Ohio), to design and develop a prototype fixture for the BJ's locations. The “mini store” created by those two companies features open access and product displays that encourage customers to interact with the sales consultants, learn about various service plans and examine the products.

BJ's Wholesale Club, which operates outlets in the eastern U.S., had 2002 sales totaling $5.7 billion. Wireless Retail has more than 2000 distribution points, making it the nation's largest provider of outsourced retail sales solutions for service-based technology products, and a leading retailer of wireless phones and service plans, satellite television and high-speed Internet access.