HAPPY VALLEY, ORE. – As Sprint embarks on its brick-and-mortar buildout; Verizon refines its concept store format; and T-Mobile focuses on building its subscriber base and infrastructure, AT&T continues to steadily bring elements of its flagship Chicago showroom to its chain of over 2,000 company-owned shops.
The 10,000-square-foot Miracle Mile flagship, which opened in 2012, was designed to showcase present and future wireless technologies and services, including the company’s own AT&T U-verse TV, landline and Internet offerings.
Since then, the carrier has been scaling key features of the flagship into its stores across the country, including one of its most recent remodels, completed here last fall in this Portland, Ore., bedroom community.
The store, the first to be updated in the Pacific Northwest, follows AT&T’s current three-zone format:
• The Connected Experience features lifestyle vignettes that demonstrate how, for example, music and its Digital Life home security system can be controlled remotely through wireless devices.
• The Community Zone features “community tables” where customers can shop and play in an open and interactive space replete with apps, accessories and devices on display.
• The Explore Zone is essentially a wall of phones that showcase AT&T’s device and accessories assortment, with digital displays providing product information.
Gone are the traditional sales stations, which frees up tablet-equipped associates to roam the sales floor, while new additions include some decidedly non-cellular products like Bluetooth headphones by Beats by Dre; wireless speakers by Braven; wearables by Fitbit, Jawbone, LG, Pebble and Samsung; and accessories like tablet keyboards and docks by Asus, Belkin, Samsung and Zagg.
Paul Roth, AT&T’s retail sales and service president, had said the format literally began with a blank sheet of paper, and was designed around the core question of “How do we want our customers to feel when they walk into our stores?”
Like its predecessors, the new Happy Valley store allows visiting customers to “discover an interactive shopping experience built around their mobile lifestyle,” observed AT&T VP Mike Maxwell. “Our goal is to be America’s premier retailer by providing an exceptional experience in every interaction, and we’ve been working hard to exceed customer expectations by taking our stores and network to a new level here in Oregon.”
