If you live in a major city or a high traffic area and you’re a Verizon customer those days of being packed into your local Verizon Wireless store like a pack of sardines could be over.
Verizon Wireless announced on Tuesday that they intend to build out several big box lifestyle stores over the next year. The first location is the Verizon Super Store at the Mall of America in Bloomington Minnesota. Chicago is the next state slated to get one of these stores that could be nearly 10,000 square feet. While that’s not the size of big box stores like Walmart or Home Depot, by a long shot, it does put Verizon Wireless in the same sized footprint as most Apple (and now Microsoft) stores.
Verizon’s new store concept will feature plenty of places for customers to try out phones and tablets but also to see them linked with other accessories and get a chance to see their devices in action doing more than just making calls, sending text messages and checking Facebook.
“As much as people know about technology, there’s a huge opportunity to help educate customers,” Brian Angiolet, VP-marketing for Verizon, told AdAge.
Zones
Verizon Wireless super stores will have multiple zones demonstrating a wide variety of things that today’s mobile technology can do and the accessories necessary to do them.
Their “Get Fit” zone will be a place for fitness enthusiasts to experience fitness accessories like the FitBitZip or the JawBone Up that monitor and track fitness. These zones will have equipment like treadmills and stationary bikes that will allow customers to actually try these wearable devices and see the full effect they can get from them.
“Amplify It” will be Verizon’s music zone where all of the latest BlueTooth enabled headsets, music gear and boomboxes will be on display. Customers will be encouraged to test out their phones with these devices and play them loudly. AdAge reports that a wall of sound will show off all the speakers and a dj booth will allow customers to use an app to create their own sound.
Other zones will include a “Anywhere Business” zone, a “Have Fun” zone and a “Customize It” zone. Verizon also said they will partner with other vendors and change the zones out seasonally.
Verizon also plans on converting their existing 1700 locations into “smart stores” which are essentially smaller versions of these new big box concepts. In addition, company wide, Verizon plans on making it easier to bridge online and offline sales by adding same day delivery and in-store pickup for customers who use their website to order or upgrade their equipment.
Image: Fierce Wireless
