We’re in the middle of the holiday season now, and this is the time of year where companies want their products available for customers to buy them. As this is the time of year when most people buy the most products. Now you may not think of Walmart as a big retailer for selling smartphones or phones in general. But they do sell phones for Verizon, AT&T, Straight Talk and T-Mobile. They used to sell them for Sprint as well, but recently they have begun disappearing from a number of Walmart stores in the US. And being replaced by prepaid T-Mobile phones, or Straight Talk phones. And in some cases, they are just left with empty space. On Walmart.com, the only postpaid carriers that they sell phones for are Verizon and AT&T.
A representative from Walmart stated that Sprint smartphones are only sold in about 500 of their stores nationwide. Walmart currently has 4,177 stores, and 3,275 of those are Supercenters. While Sprint’s smartphones are still sold in a number of stores, many of them are only selling their prepaid offerings – including some from their prepaid carriers, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile – but when it comes to postpaid Sprint smartphones, they have vanished. It is also worth noting that a few locations have stopped selling Boost Mobile’s offerings as well. It’s currently unclear whether this is due to Walmart or due to Sprint. Neither company will comment on the matter, just yet.
This week, a report came out detailing the top retailers for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, and Walmart was number 2, between Amazon and eBay. So Walmart isn’t some small retailer, they are one of the largest in the US. And for Sprint to either pull their phones out, or be pulled out, is a pretty big deal. After they dropped down to the fourth largest carrier earlier this year, and now potential customers and current customers have even less choices on where to buy their next phone, if they want to join Sprint. Sure Sprint has all of Radioshack’s locations, but selling their phones at Walmart is a much bigger deal, considering the reach that Walmart has.