Loblaw, a major supermarket here in Canada, has been offering prepaid mobile service under their PC Mobile brand for years, and also from 8 other carriers with “The Mobile Shop” self-serve kiosk (Rogers, Bell, TELUS, Virgin, Fido, Koodo, Wind and Public Mobile). Today, the company has officially rolled out a new full-service store-within-a-store experience that gives people another way to purchase a postpaid mobile device, internet stick or tablet – in total they have over 50 different devices. There are currently 100 locations live today, but the plan is to have a total of 200 across Canada by the end of the 2012.
During an interview yesterday Maria Forlini, Senior Vice President, PC Telecom stated that “we are serious about this and in it for the long haul”. The big goal is to become Canada’s largest third party mobile phone retailer by 2013, The Mobile Shop already employs 400 mobile representatives, planning for another 400 next year, and customers can go in and ask for advice about their device. Forlini stated that “we play an advisory role to ensure our customers’ get the right phone and the right plan in order to help them get the most out of their mobile experience – all in one easy and convenient location.”
The Mobile Shop full-service stores have devices from Rogers, Bell, TELUS, Virgin, Fido, Koodo and PC Mobile , however, if you’re looking the score a WIND or Public phone from them you’ll have to revert back to the basic Prepay kiosks.
Source: The Mobile Shop
