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Loblaws poaching Best Buy execs, “The Mobile Shop” full retail store coming soon?

By on September 14, 2011 at 10:20am in Mobile News


Loblaws launched their PC Mobile brand back in 2005, offered a limited selection of entry level devices from Bell and Solo. They chugged along with no-contract terms and sub-par monthly rate plans until “The Mobile Shop” came onto the Canadian scene last year. At the time Loblaws said this was “part of its push to become one of Canada’s major retailers of mobile phones”. The simple kiosk was still present but the image was different, now giving potential customers the option to choose from 9 wireless carriers: Bell, Solo, Virgin, Fido, Virgin, Public Mobile, Wind Mobile and TELUS.

We could be way off base here and we’ve reached out to Loblaws for greater insight. Heavy duty poaching of new talent is happening, all taken from Best Buy Canada to spearhead the “store within a store” retail experience.

LinkedIn is a good resource and so far there are 3 new hires: Chris Webber was formerly the Director of Design at Best Buy and was the designer of record for the new “Cell Shop” concept that rolled into most of the Future Shop locations. Weber has now taken on the title of “Vice President Construction and Design at Loblaws Canada”. Next, Tony Gosse, who was a Senior Manager of “Store Design” and “In-store Experience” at Best Buy is now a “Senior Director at Loblaws”. Finally, Richard Gagnier, was responsible for opening Best Buy locations in Canada is now Construction Manager for Loblaws.

Loblaws grocery stores are clean, well organized and do not need a complete makeover, especially from 3 individuals who’ve been embedded in the tech space for years. So it seems we could see Loblaws create their full blown retail Mobile Shop experience soon. It would make complete sense for Loblaws to focus on “The Mobile Shop” brand, mainly because by 2014 it’s estimated there will be almost 30 million wireless subscribers in Canada. There would probably be nothing worse for them to invest millions into re-branding their mobile business, only to have it lost in the background next to the pepper, a waste of resources and time and certainly not on track to become one of “Canada’s major retailers of mobile phones”.

Loblaws certainly has, or will create, the space in their stores. Recently PC Mobile showed a bit more of their commitment to Canadian mobile users by releasing a data add-on and their first smartphone, the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy 550.

Update: Just heard back from Loblaws, they stated that “Regarding your question, I can tell you that we will have some very exciting news for you in the coming months but at this point in time, I’m unable to provide any specific details.”

We’ll have more info soon…
(Thanks tipster!)

Related posts:

  1. “The Mobile Shop”… A Loblaws idea that brings 9 wireless brands into their supermarkets
  2. Apple to open retail store in Winnipeg, boasts about having over 75,000 apps
  3. Future Shop press release says Koodo and Fido will release the Nexus S
  4. Distribution is the next battleground in Canadian wireless (Loblaws sends out request to carriers)

Discussion

11 comments for “Loblaws poaching Best Buy execs, “The Mobile Shop” full retail store coming soon?”

  1. Glad to see Wind and Public getting more attention in stores when i walk in to my local best buy there are no wind/mobilicity phones … so if they were in those kinds of stores i could see them getting a lot more sales then selling them in blockbuster

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 2

    Posted by Sean | September 14, 2011, 10:26 am
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  2. the only reason why best buy doesnt sell any of the non contract carriers is because of that sole reason. because there is no contract they do not provide any back end funding to best buy, so why would best buy use up floor space advertising when they wont make any money off of it. its all about making money.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 9 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Justin | September 14, 2011, 10:33 am
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    • not only that but best buy/futureshop doesn’t carry wind/public/mobilicity is because their coverage doesn’t cover half of where best buy stores are.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 1

      Posted by Laura | September 14, 2011, 11:17 am

  3. free bag of chips with every new phone purchase

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 14 Thumb down 0

    Posted by Joe | September 14, 2011, 10:46 am
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    • Nooooo…free bag of president’s choice chocolate chip cookies haha

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 1

      Posted by Brad | September 14, 2011, 4:23 pm

  4. as a former employee for Loblaw Companies Ltd., i can confirm that over the last year there has been a major shift in upper management with a lot of the senior managers being replaced with those from other companies. it probably has less to do with opening a mobile store and more to do with re-constructing their image. the big speech we kept getting as employees is that “big things are about to come”. with that being said, they’ve done several layoffs this year. but with their desire to expand no frills and other like stores in the west and focusing on stand-alone “joe fresh” stores, i can probably guess that, at this point in time, mobile service isn’t one of their priorities.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 6

    Posted by Steve | September 14, 2011, 11:02 am
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    • you are a laid off loblaw employee

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 5

      Posted by Akbar | September 14, 2011, 11:09 am

    • this is true BUT i also worked out of the head office in ontario where most of the information is given out.

      i’m not knocking the fact that it’s possible that LCL will consider a mobile store… but according to their platform, grocery stores and their clothing line are their primary and secondary focuses, respectively. a lot of the company’s money has gone into rebuilding their grocery division.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0

      Posted by Steve | September 14, 2011, 12:06 pm

  5. Justin, mostly agree, but Wind and Mobi offer:
    * WINDtab and WINDtab+ with Wind, and
    * Multi-month options with Mobilicity.

    Plus Bell, Rogerss and Telus all have prepaid options sold at FS/BB, including some Androids plus the Virgin and Fido brands.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 8

    Posted by Alex Perrier | September 14, 2011, 11:45 am
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  6. These are going to be Glentel (Wireless Wave / Telephone Booth / Wireless ETC…) stores.

    Glentel was hyping up the Loblaws deal internally at our Retail Management meetings a few months back, telling us to get ready for some crazy expansion, as we would be putting a “store inside a store” concept into every Loblaw’s and Superstore in the country. Exactly the same as they did with Costco and the Wireless ETC… brand.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 11

    Posted by Insider | September 14, 2011, 2:02 pm
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  7. The upcoming launch will not be done by Glentel but rather a 3rd party marketing company. October 1st is their launch date.

    Info is easily enough to find online if you know where to look.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 1

    Posted by Jim | September 15, 2011, 12:53 pm
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