Any recent rumblings on this? Will the dealers still be taking over a large percentage of our stores? If so, when?
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This has been discussed some I was an assistant manager in training 6 years ago. Leadership came in to our training and talked about getting down below 1k cor stores from 2k. They used Apple’s 200 stores as an example and how Apple is most profitable business per sq ft in the world. Definitely level 1 stores close by 1st quarter of 2021.
Retail stores are so short staffed, something is going to happen.
The worst is going to be the employees of the AR's that now have to deal with the COR employees last hurrah of fraud. Trust me, I've dealt with it.
Yes as soon as leases are renegotiated. So that part is unknown. Part of 2020 plan. Now accelerated due to Covid. Upper management has been doing store visits and taking a good look at traffic patterns and store location. They are assessing whether to keep, flip to AR or close. It doesn’t make financial sense since AR can do all COR can at a fraction of the cost to AT&T to operate. Even use same systems and inventory process. Makes it very easy to flip the switch to AR. With all operations aligned, could close as COR on Saturday and reopen Monday as AR. Just spend Sunday transferring inventory and doing physical count. I heard couple years ago that goal is 2-3 COR stores per NFL market. Look for regions to close at the same time so stores, ARSM and DOS can all be surplussed from that area at the same time. Company can only handle so many closures per month with all that goes into it. So expect a certain area to be hit every month. Look to Cricket on how they eventually closed all COR stores using this same process. They figured out how to do it efficiently on that side. Apply that process on this side and can easily close 100-200 stores a month.
The push for Protect so customers don’t have to visit a store for troubleshooting and replacements. Push auto pay to get the billing and payments out of the store. Online promos are stronger than In store to encourage a change in the buying behaviors. Is the company launching anything to drive people into your stores or push them out? Just be as prepared as possible. Build your network of contacts for future job searches. Apply for a few jobs so you learn the process if you haven’t in a while and keep the resume ready to go. The unknown is a bit scary. We will all know soon.
I have no inside information but since John Stankey said on the earnings call that that will be happening across the country in a lot of locations, I can only assume that is the plan.
Definitely. It’s been the plan for years. I know my area is currently working to modify current leases, looking to lower rent or get out early, they actually sent this in an email (only because they wanted us to direct any landlord questions to Retail Real Estate). Said it will take some time. Best guess is high profit and Flagship locations will stay corporate, also locations that have no other stores anywhere near them. Everyone else, especially Focus, and “regular “ will definitely be up for grabs for AR.