Best Buy Co. is banking on Big D to generate some big dollars in mobile phone sales. The Richmond, Minn.-based electronics giants launched its stand-alone Best Buy Mobile with the opening of six stores in Dallas-Forth Worth and has a seventh coming on line soon in the Dallas Galleria, according to a report in The Dallas Morning News. The newspaper quoted Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile, as saying five or six more stores are slated for the area.
The result of three years of market testing in six cities, these mobile phone stores are designed specifically for mall settings. Their footprint is just 1000 to 1200 square feet, a far cry from their 950 big-box, core brand sisters. On offer will be services from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and other prepaid providers, as well as Virgin Mobile prepaid broadband, Bluetooth headsets, WiFi support devices and a variety of accessories.
Boston, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami are the next targets. Best Buy Mobile isn’t releasing target development numbers, but Score did tell the newspaper, “There are almost 200 malls in this country. I don’t think we’ll be in all of them.”