'Abundance of Caution' Over COVID-19 Spurs Sprint to Close 71% of Its Storefronts
Sprint temporarily closed 71% of its retail locations and cut back store hours in those remaining open, in response to the spread of COVID-19, it said Tuesday. New store hours are Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and noon-5 p.m. Sunday.
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“Out of an abundance of caution" for its employees, customers and communities, Sprint is closing "all but its most highly critical retail stores,” it said. Sprint is leaving open certain locations “dispersed throughout the country” to meet the needs of communities, including service and repair locations, the carrier said. It attempted to keep stores open within a “reasonable distance from where most customers and employees live and work.” The company didn't respond to questions.
The carrier directed customers to a store locator Tuesday but didn't encourage physical store visits. At the store locator page, customers are told the Sprint website will “exclusively feature” its best deals “with waived activation and upgrade fees and free next day shipping." The upshot: “there is no reason customers will need to visit a store.”
When we plugged in our New York City ZIP code, 19 Sprint locations came up with 10 miles, all showing a 0-minute estimated wait time. A St. Louis ZIP code brought up two locations within 10 miles, one with a 48-minute estimated wait time and the other 0 minutes. A ZIP code in San Francisco -- which began a three-week lockdown period Tuesday -- brought up five stores in a 10-mile radius, all with 0 minutes’ estimated wait times.
At the Sprint Mission Street location in San Francisco, store manager Wriz Tilan was preparing for the 11 a.m. opening when we reached her Tuesday. “There’s not anybody downtown, and there are cops patrolling” to enforce the area's three-week lockdown, which began Tuesday at 12:01 a.m., Tilan said. With Apple stores closed, her Sprint location has had some customers coming in for iPhone repairs, she said; others are coming in to make sure their bills are paid to maintain service during the critical lockdown period. Sales are minimal -- about two a day over the past few days -- with customers upgrading from broken phones, she said. "We’re trying to maximize that,” she said, referencing the waived upgrade fees. Like the Mission Street location, most operating stores in the region have repair departments, she said.
At one of the two St. Louis-area locations listed in our search, store traffic was busy Tuesday morning but tapered off by afternoon, Ty Cotton, senior sales representative, told us. Cotton was posted at the Richmond Heights store when her location was shut down under the temporary closings. Stores with tech centers in the area remained open, she said, but sales-only stores closed. The Sunset Hills store, which showed a 65-minute wait around lunch hour, improved to 23 minutes mid-afternoon.
All Sprint Express at Walgreens locations will close temporarily, along with stores within indoor malls and all stores in Puerto Rico, according to the local government mandate, the telcoms provider said. The company is continuing to monitor the situation and will “make the necessary decisions to keep our teams and customers safe.”
Though stores with repair sites are open, Sprint is encouraging customers to speak with a “tech expert” via app if having issues with a device.
Related to the pandemic, Sprint tweeted Saturday that T-Mobile’s announcement that the additional spectrum it expected to receive from the FCC for 60 days -- to help meet increased customer demand during the crisis -- will be available to Sprint customers. The FCC gave T-Mobile temporary authority Sunday to use additional spectrum in the 600 MHz band (see 2003160063).