Sub-brands and resellers have the best in-store Black Friday deals

Black Friday is synonymous with deals, and it’s one of the few times carriers offer good (ish) prices on wireless plans and devices.

For Canadians looking online, I’m happy to back up MobileSyrup’s Brad Bennett, to say there isn’t much you’re missing out on in stores, especially if shopping at Bell, Rogers, or Telus.

This year, I decided to brave the crowds at my local Toronto-area mall for Black Friday to figure out if there were any good wireless deals in-store that weren’t available online.

After roaming through the entire mall, it was clear that all of the crowds were concentrated around service providers (save for the Bath and Body Works). People are looking for a good deal, and with the prices Canadian consumers pay for telecom services, that’s not surprising.

The Rogers, Fido, Bell, and Freedom Mobile stores all had long queues. Fido even had a roped-off area where people could stand in line. While all of the associates at Telus were busy with customers at the location I visited, there wasn’t a large crowd.

At kiosks for Virgin Plus, Koodo, Chatr and another Freedom Mobile, there was also a wait to speak to a representative. Lucky Mobile was the only location without many customers. There are no Vidéotron locations in my area, but if any readers come across a good deal in-store, drop it down in the comments.

As mentioned earlier, there were no deals at the retail locations for the big three that weren’t available online. But there were some good deals at their sub-brands, as well as resellers.

Here’s what I found:

Freedom Mobile

The provider is offering a $29/10GB 4G LTE plan in-store for bring-your-own-phone (BYOP) customers. Freedom’s website also has a $29/month option for this plan, but it only includes 6GB of data.

Chatr

Chatr is offering a $13.33/month plan for three months, after which the price would go up to $40/month. It comes with 32.5GB of 4G data a month for 24 months.

Wirelesswave

The mall I visited had two of these reseller locations; that’s how you know it’s a fan favourite. After talking to the customer service agent, I understand why. Here, you’ll either get plans from Bell, Rogers, or their flanker brands, but the devices are what you should come for.

The 128GB Pixel 7 is available for $0/month and comes with $150 to spend in-store. At the time of writing, Fido’s website shows the device costs $10/month. At Virgin Plus, it’s $1/month.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 is available for $5/month and a $250 credit to spend in-store. It must be returned in two years under Rogers’ or Bell’s rules, depending on the service provider the customer picks.

This is a better option than Fido, which is offering the device for $15/month. The option from Virgin, however, also costs $5/month.

If you prefer to shop online, check out MobileSyrup’s roundup of the best carrier deals. For retailer Black Friday tech deals, follow this link.