Overland Park, Kan. — Sprint will more than double the number of company-owned stores tomorrow when it opens 1,435 Sprint-RadioShack stores, the company said.
Last week, General Wireless Inc., an affiliate of Standard General, acquired 1,743 RadioShack stores in a court-approved bankruptcy sale. Sprint will be co-tenants in 1,435 of those stores, with Sprint being the primary brand in marketing materials and signage, the carrier said. Sprint will occupy roughly one-third of the retail space at those existing RadioShack locations and will, through the end of the year, work closely with General Wireless to build out Sprint’s “store-within-a-store” merchandising strategy, the carrier continued.
In the coming months, Sprint will also “actively recruit a skilled workforce to fill quality full- and part-time positions” in the stores, the carrier said.
All 1,435 Sprint-RadioShack stores will be open tomorrow and offer devices and services from Sprint and from the carrier’s Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile prepaid brands, which were already available in RadioShack stores.
Earlier this year, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure called distribution growth “imperative” and said Sprint had fewer Sprint-brand outlets than its competitors.
Consumers “value the ability to walk into a neighborhood Sprint store near where they live and work,” Claure said today.
All other wireless brands, including prepaid MVNOs TracFone and Net10, get booted out of the 1,435 outlets. T-Mobile isn’t sold through RadioShack.
