Although she never needed to use the services at the Totally Cellular store in the EMU, freshman Kathleen Martin said she wasn’t surprised when she recently noticed an empty room in its place.
“I know a lot of the time they sent my friends to the mall because they couldn’t fix certain phones,” she said.
After less than a year on campus, local cell phone retailer Totally Cellular closed its EMU location last month in an effort to regain the profits it lost while serving the University community.
Despite a high-traffic location between the Fishbowl and the Ticket Office, the company decided to pull out of the building following fall term final exams, EMU Director Dusty Miller said.
“Doing retail on campus is very different from doing it on the street,” he said. “About five months out of 12, campus retailers need to make a profit to sustain their businesses, and some barely break even.”
Miller said he will consult recent market research and solicit new “entities” to take up the space before making a presentation to the EMU Board. In the meantime, Totally Cellular will pay monthly rent until its lease is up in about two years.
“I believe this was (Totally Cellular’s) first attempt at working on a college campus,” Miller said.
A Totally Cellular employee who did not want to be identified said the cell phone retailer first decided to relocate the EMU store in mid-December. The company then moved the store to a prior location in Springfield while keeping the same employees and the same look.
Located at 107 W. Q St., the new and improved Totally Cellular store is open for business, and the company hopes the change will help it make a better profit, the employee said.
According to http://www.totallycellular.net, the Springfield location is just one of nine current branches statewide. Established in 1996, the privately owned company went through quite a few business “peaks and valleys” as it grew to form a wholesale division and offer more than 300 cell phone accessories for most makes and models.
Miller said the EMU Board will remain active in its search for a “valuable” replacement to fill the void as Totally Cellular continues to pay a minimum rent of $1,100 per month for the remainder of its three-year lease.
“We’re doing our research with an open mind,” he said. “If we can find a good service that can help students on campus, that’s what we’ll present to the board.”