It just dawned on me yesterday. I had a couple of guys from here msn me about getting phones from the US. I told them I just wasn't into that, and couldn't be of much help. But I did tell them that I had a kiosk in a mall and had a cell phone kiosk right next door.
That got me thinking. I think I may have a way for all of you interesed in sourcing phones. I'm on the east coast, in fact I offered them the use of my pier out back if they wanted to sail over. I noticed that the cell phone guys get a daily delivery from either LA or San Francisco, I forget which. They got a daily replenishment of what they ahd sold the day before.
This place next to mine was part of a regional chain of independent cell contract sellers. It was not a single brand, company owned kiosk. Rather, they sold all services and promoted which was paying the most kickbacks at any given time. The manager at the time would have told me, but he has since died and I have no real contacts there. But I do have a method.
I've suggested it before - dumpster diving.
Actually, it doesn't have to come to that, but it could. These guys would get usually just one carton a day. Their supplier even had their name on the carton and of course on the label. So, several ways to handle it.
One is just "buddy up" with an employee at a cell shop. Get them to give you a source.
If that doesn't work, be there when their deliveries come. Check out the names on the cartons and labels.
Or, find where they dispose of their trash. Find the cartons and get the label info.
I've done this in other businesses, even asking to use the restroom in order to snoop in the stockroom. But with a kiosk in the mall, they have little space for receiving and no place for the empty cartons. They take the empties to the trash ASAP. Follow the trash.
Linear Mode
March 2010
