New Public Mobile stores?

[Korth]

I noticed a PM Careers page with this:

https://telus.taleo.net/careersection/publicmobile/jobdetail.ftl?job=RET23930-20&tz=GMT-07%3A00&tzna...

"Our Public Mobile team is growing! Join our team as we launch our retail stores across Canada."

This job posting is for a PM-branded retail outlet in Richmond, BC. Are these stores a new thing? Will there be more stores? Will they sell phones?

I see the link specifically refers Telus as the employer. So is this just a Telus-branded store which also offers subsidiary PM (and Koodo) brands?

[Korth]

It's Richmond, BC.

About three quarters of the population speaks Mandarin or Cantonese (or both) as their first language(s). Most of the remainder speak other Chinese, Punjab, Farsi, or English as their first language. Most (but not all) can speak English. Almost nobody speaks French (beyond grade school vocabulary) unless they were hired for a bilingual governmental position. The more of these languages the retail staff can speak, the fewer customers they'll have to turn away.

[ShawnC13]

Even though this says Store Manager, I still think it is for the Kiosk I can't see PM moving to something that is bigger and requires more square footage.  We got announcements that Kiosks were coming, I am sure if they were transitioning to stores there would have been a big announcement about that as well.

[darlicious]

@will13am   The last line under "Who you are".

Knowledge of other languages, we consider this an asset

Since I'm currently in surgery limbo...i can't even consider it. If it was downtown Vancouver in 6 months from now it would be a tempting possibility.

[will13am]

@darlicious , I see no mention of language requirements for this position.  You are being rather presumptuous here.  They do mention cultural diversity.  So if you dare to be different, apply.  

[darlicious]

Richmond is an interesting choice for a retail location that already has a kiosk. It sounds like they are outgrowing the kiosk and business generated there has shown that a store front location is warranted. As does the requirement to lead a team and drive sales shows a push into an affluent market that demands cost savings.

       The preference for management (and probably the sales team as well) to possess the ability to speak "other" languages is an asset that is the key to a successful hiring. I can guarantee that official bilingualism is not the language assets they are looking for when hiring for this position.

      It's too bad I'd almost apply for the position to go from volunteer to a paid employee but my lack of "other" linguistics would prevent me from being shortlisted as a candidate. But good luck to anyone who is qualified....there are few companies out there that you can have real enthusiasm  about...public mobile happens to be one of them for me.

[JoyLuck]

In the city where I live I had not even heard of PM. I just happened to be looking at a Facebook site where someone mentioned it. As a start, I would get a kiosk in all the big malls to get more advertising and market share.

[computergeek541]

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@totalUser wrote:

I hope not

Phones and stores are expensive for providers

Bike stations are not bad

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This is almost certainly for a "bike" kiosk location. These can't be cheap to have in major retail malls, but that's the way Public Mobile is going to increase subscriber count. 

[computergeek541]

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@Korth wrote:

I see the link specifically refers Telus as the employer. So is this just a Telus-branded store which also offers subsidiary PM (and Koodo) brands?

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Since this is listed as a Public Mobile position, this is for a Public Mobile retail location. These locations only sell Public Mobile sim cards and tops ups while also offering activations. They do not sell Telus Mobility or Koodo Mobile services.

[JoyLuck]

I think they have a kiosk already in Richmond Centre so transitioning to a store in the mall would be an easy move for them.

[Korth]

Richmond is a generally affluent city. Lots of malls, services, entertainments, tech bling, prized real estate, rich homes, gleaming offices, expensive cars. A seemingly ideal place to sell phones.

I find it a curious choice for PM, though, because PM's platform is no frills and more or less the same for less. So I don't see a PM store really being a good fit for the area. Some locals will want lowest-cost service for their Alibaba-imported Chinese phones but most locals will want the sorts of toys (latest iPhones and Galaxies) and the sorts of luxuries (fastest LTE and VoLTE) which PM pointedly lacks.

It makes me wonder if this is a bold experiment or if it's a sign that PM intends on "doing things differently" than it has before - the latter possibility suggesting translation into "doing things like Telus" with "like Telus" contracts and "like Telus" prices.

[totalUser]

I hope not

Phones and stores are expensive for providers

Bike stations are not bad