When Bell purchased all 765 locations of The Source back in March last year they dramatically increased their footprint when it came to retail space. Bell also dished out $135 million for the brand and in the process booted Rogers out… this gave them the rights to exclusively only sell Bell products and their “sub-brand” Virgin Mobile in the locations.
The restructuring is well on the way and locations started to sell their wireless devices on January 1st. Looking through their online catalog today and noticed that The Source is branding themselves as “Canada’s Largest Wireless Retailer”. They also quote that they have over 500 locations coast to coast. Which leads me to believe that they have shut a number of locations down.
When comparing to the other big retailers, Best Buy has 68 stores (including Best Buy Mobile stand alone stores) and Future Shop has 144 stores with their dedicated “Cell Shop”. So yes, The Source is the Largest when it comes to the number of locations.
Here’s my question about being the “Largest”, specifically when it comes to retail: Is it more important as a customer to have more stores with a couple brands… or have less locations that offer more selection?
