Next time when you visit the electronics department at a Target near you, don't be surprised when you see another guy or gal working the department that isn't dressed in red and khaki. Target and RadioShack are officially joining forces to bring Target Mobile to guests all over the country. Target Mobile is a "convenient and simplified cell phone shopping experience both in-store and online."
The bullseyed logoed company announced that by the end of this year (2010 for those of you not keeping track), 850 stores will have these mobile centers in their stores. By mid-2011 -- before the world ends in 2012 -- Target is ultimately planning to have these centers in majority of their stores nationwide. But if you're not quite the in-store shopper, the Minneapolis-based corporation, has also launched an online store: www.targetmobilestore.com; being maintained and Target-branded by Simplexity.
This isn't the first time we've seen retailers and network carriers link up to bring more cell phone options other then just pre-paid phones to customers; or as Target likes to call them -- Guests. Hey, who knows, you might even buy your next Android device when you're shopping around buying some Mossimo jeans or some Archer Farms cookies. What do you guys think? Will this be a success or a failed attempt? Sound off in the comments section and let us know what you think. [Target]
Reader comments
Target is rolling out 'Target Mobile' to a store near you
Radio Shack has had some definite success in competing with the mall kiosk. Many of these resellers can offer "sales" that the Verizon or AT&T store cannot. A few years back, Radio Shack offered a deal where they would replace your battery every 2 years for free. Especially with the NMh and NiCD batteries, at some point, they just stop holding a good charge. So I think they may do very well.
omg it looks just like my bull terrier awesome!! .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BxG69sDKQ4
actually i think this is just going to insure that the radio shack guys are going less knowledgeable and paid less. I told i radio shack employee i was waiting for 4g in my area before I switched to sprint. he nodded. I asked why there was clearwire service and not sprint 4g in the area. He said they had nothing to do with each other. I told him clearwire's wimax and sprint's 4g were the same because sprint is the majority share holder of clearwire..... partnership... blah blah blah. If i cant ask questions to that radioshack guy now i sure wont to able to at target when their just staring at all the hot moms
At Target, once they have told you the price they have exhausted their technical knowledge.
Even the hot moms know enough to shop for tech in a tech store rather than target. So I'm afraid all you will find there are the droolers and the airheads.
it worked for Wal-Mart
What's with the Sprint hate...
I was thinking the same thing.....no tag for sprint but everybody else...lol
I think it would be nice to work with Radio Shack. I said that because I work at Target. ;)
Umm, is it different than m.target.com? Because that's already up and running.
After working for Taget for 5 years I can honestly say everyone should go somewhere else to buy non-gaming console electronics. My old store (Chico CA) has had the "Mobile" for almost a year now.
To clarify, the "Team Members" that work the mobile department are not Target employees, they are a third party company that Target has contracted with (like the people in the Photo Department and Starbucks). And as icebike said, they are worthless. It should be known that there is no product training with Target, its all BS that you learn on your own.
If you are going to buy a phone from a retailer, just stick with Best Buy. At least they can price match (they will even price match Amazon), know what they are talking about, and if you buy there warranty you have the "geek squad" there to give you a new phone on the spot when you kill the old one.
Oh, and Target's extended warranty are a joke.
OK call me crazy but isn't this competitors playing on the same team now????? so what's it going to be the shack becomes target now!
I bought my girl a Droid from the guys at Target a couple of months ago and it was a way better experience than dealing with the yo-yos at Verizon, not to mention I didn't have to take a number and wait for an hour.
They had my contract printed in 5 minutes and I was out the door in 15. If it does take longer than 15, most Target superstores have a Starbucks.
The more stores there are, the more options for shopping there are for us consumers. i say build them !!
Great post! I was looking forward and didn’t expect to see it so soon! Again, great, sound advice. Looking forward to read more under those new tabs you added!
regards.
Mobile News
I'm actually a Target Mobile Employee. I've been there for seven months now and love it. It is a great atmosphere to work in. Plus we are well trained. If your worried about knowledge. They make sure that we know our phones, how they work and compare and really help us to be unbiased.
Although this post is at least a year old I thought I would add to it to possibly save some other poor sole a bad experience. My G/F and I decided to get new phones. The Target by our house has the phone we wanted at a great price. We converted her plant to a Family plan and then wanted to port my phone to that acct. The individual that tried to set this up (AT&T acct) got this completely screwed up. That was on a Saturday night at 8:00 pm. We spent 1.5 hours on the phone with ATT support on Sunday morning. Following their instructions (AT&T) we went back to Target and ask the Cell Phone Mgr on duty to return the phone (per ATT instructions) then re-issue the phone on to the acct that was repaired. He swore up and down that we did not have to do that, we spent 4 hours between Target and ATT stores trying to resolve. The Target Cell phone mgr still insisted that the phone did not have to be returned to resolve the issue and called the AT&T Technical Support for that store, (he would not let us speak to them). While on the call he switched Sim Cards in the phone that had the new number assigned with the old sim card and tried several power up and power down steps and he said that ATT rep. told him the problem was fixed. However when we got home and looked at our acct (about 2 hours later) the only thing that was resolved was what ATT had resolved for us (porting the number over). Maybe if you are only upgrading you phone and not making any changes to your acct then Target might be OK. For me my experience has been horrid and it is still not resolved. I am extremely frustrated and angry.
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