SIOUX CITY | Verizon Wireless opened a new "Smart Store" in Sioux City in September, equipped with ways to help customers not only purchase new phones and other electronics, but learn how to use their full potential.
Mary Frericks stopped by the store at 5735 Sunnybrook Drive in October for help with her new iPhone 6.
At a smartphone station, she was assisted by the store’s solution specialist, Victor Bustos.
“I just got to upgrade my phone. The shop here is so awesome,” Frericks, of Remsen, Iowa, said. “Victor was very helpful.”
The 4,725-square-foot store, with services designed to be more convenient and personalized for customers, replaced a smaller, more traditional store just across the street in Sunnybrook Plaza.
Verizon's first Iowa Smart Store opened last year in Clive. The Verizon store at the Empire Mall in Sioux Falls also was converted to a Smart Store last year.
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At the new Sioux City location, located next to a trio of national retailers -- Ulta Beauty, Bed Bath & Beyond and Marshalls -- Manager Chad Paulson greeted customers on Oct. 10, helping them identify what they were looking for.
“It’s the newer way we’re trying to help people based not on just what they’re looking for, but how to use the devices, from phones to cameras,” Paulson said that day.
Areas within the store are divided into “zones” based on fitness, music, games, home monitoring, business and more. Gone are walls between areas of different products; the store feels much more open and visible.
Employees not only help with what products and devices work best for customers, but give personalized, hands-on training about their new smartphones, tablets, fitness monitoring bands and more.
The store even has smart thermostats which help energy management, and can be controlled from your phone to lower or raise the temperature with ease.
Verizon has added more resource management tools to help the stores run more efficiently with better scheduling and training, so wait times for customers should be shorter.
Near the store's center, Paulson dragged a finger over the large touch-screen TV, showing off various pre-made lesson plans for workshops for nearly every facet of their technology. Basic and advanced classes are both available. A horseshoe table lets several customers sit in at once to learn how to use their new gadgets.
Other new features of the store include being able to pay a landline bill at an automated kiosk (that also accepts payments for wireless service) and content transfer services, which swap your pictures, music and other files from one device to another.
“We wanted to show customers that Verizon is more than just phones,” Paulson said. “This is the first store of its kind in Siouxland. It’s definitely the future of Verizon, as well.”
