RadioShack To Run Target’s Mobile Biz

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 11/9/2009

MINNEAPOLIS — Target has outsourced its mobile phone operation to RadioShack.

According to a report in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal, the discount chain has tapped RadioShack subsidiary Kiosk Operations to assume its wireless sales.

The subsidiary has already opened kiosks in about 100 Target stores earlier this month in California, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Texas and Washington, and the partners plan to roll them out to all 1,700 Target stores nationwide next year.

The kiosks are branded as Bullseye Mobile Solutions, and are manned by Kiosk Operations employees who are distinguished from Target sales associates by their black, vs. red, shirts.

Target’s prepaid and post-paid wireless assortment is presently displayed along a single aisle facing, and has no dedicated sales staff.

RadioShack also operates wireless kiosks for Sam’s Club, and recently added Verizon Wireless to its kiosk carrier assortment, which also includes AT&T, Sprint Nextel and more recently T-Mobile.

In other local retail news, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal also reported that Best Buy is looking to sub-lease 250,000 square feet of its 1.5 million-square-foot headquarters complex in Richfield, Minn. The newspaper quoted a confidential source who said a commercial real estate broker is quietly marketing space in “Building D” on behalf of the retailer.

About 500 headquarters employees left the company in February after accepting early buyouts.