GLOUCESTER – T-Mobile has a tentative time and date – 10am June 30 – for a ribbon-cutting at its first Middle Peninsula location. The communications company is part of a small shopping center at 7115 George Washington Memorial Highway in the middle of Gloucester County. It will be situated between Chipotle and Aspen Dental.
“We’ve been planning on doing this store for a couple of years now,” said Scot Lehrer, who will manage the new store. “But we didn’t want to do anything until we could prepare the towers to provide the service to the community.”
The company was hoping to open a week earlier but ran into minor issues with HVAC and duct work. That seems to have been worked out.
“Everything’s looking good so far right now,” Lehrer said about the June 30 opening.
Lehrer has been with T-Mobile for 19 years. His home store is in Newport News, but he also covers locations in Hampton, Chesapeake, and Smithfield. He lives in Grafton, so he is familiar with the area.
“We have this focus, as a company, on these small markets and rural areas,” said Roni Singleton, who works in corporate communications at T-Mobile. “It’s all part of our desire to meet our customers where they live and work.”
The Gloucester location will be 2,600 square feet, which is a little larger than its other stores. It’s being called an “Experience Store,” and will be T-Mobile’s only corporate store in the area.
“It has more of a homey feel than the older places,” Lehrer said. “When you come in, it will feel more like a family atmosphere.”
It will offer its usual products and services, including cellphones, tablets, iPads, and accessories. The hours, mostly likely, will be 10am to 8pm Monday-Saturday, and noon to 6pm Sunday.
At the grand opening, there will be numerous giveaways and drawings, including opportunities to win free accessories and to receive discounts on plans.
The company has 180 retail locations in the state, but this will be the first on the Middle Peninsula.
“The opening of the store in Gloucester is part of our efforts to expand our retail footprint … especially in small market rural areas,” Lehrer said. “We are now able to give local wireless users a much more convenient location to shop, and they don’t have to worry about traveling to Newport News or Hampton or even to Richmond for that matter.”
He has been making a concerted effort to learn about the community by volunteering.
“We’re really looking forward to welcoming the community and becoming an active part of Gloucester,” he said, adding many of his employees are from Gloucester. “We want it to be a hometown feel.”