Home - MetroPCS , News , Popular , T-Mobile - T-Mobile May Be Ending Sales of Prepaid Phones at Best Buy, Walmart and Target





One the other hand, T-Mobile Prepaid phones still seem to be readily available online from Best Buy and Walmart. One the other hand, T-Mobile Prepaid phones still seem to be readily available online from Best Buy and Walmart. Best Buy shows seven T-Mobile phones available online and Walmart has 12 models available. However, not many of the phones sold online by Walmart and Best Buy are available for immediate pick up in stores in my area.





I believe that T-Mobile is trying to shift prepaid sales from national retail to its own branded and franchised T-Mobile and MetroPCS stores. T-Mobile is definitely on a branded retail expansion kick. According to Wave7, T-Mobile is opening 400 new T-Mobile and new 1000 MetroPCS stores this year.



I have to wonder how well T-Mobile's apparent strategy of driving customers from national retail to its own stores will work out. I believe that people who buy prepaid phones at big box stores fall in to two categories. 1) Impulse buyers who grab prepaids for their kids while shopping for school supplies and small appliances and 2) savvy shoppers who research phones and carriers and look for the best deals. I can't see either type of customer shopping for a prepaid phone at a T-Mobile store. I can't see the impulse buyer dropping into a MetroPCS store either, but the savvy shopper would if the price was right.





Regardless of what's happening it looks like this is an opportunity to pick up a T-Mobile phone on clearance at a Target store. Using the Brickseek Target Inventory Checker I found the following T-Mobile devices marked down at Target stores. A word of warning, these deals are in short supply with availability at any given store averaging about 10%. Use the Brickseek checker by entering your zipcode and the DPCI number (after price in listings below) to verify availability before heading to Target.

It looks like T-Mobile could be ending sales of branded T-Mobile Prepaid phones at national retailers, aka big box stores. Wave7 Research is reporting that T-Mobile has halted shipments of prepaid phones to Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.I've saw evidence of the change at my local Target yesterday. Four of the six pegs that usually hold T-Mobile Prepaid phones were empty. The two phone models that were in stock had "Clearance" stickers on them and were marked down. The LG K7 was $62.98 (reg $89.99) and the HTC Desire 530 was $90.98 (reg $129.99). Spot checks of other Target stores using the Brickseek Target Inventory Checker also show very low T-Mobile inventory and discounted prices at all the Target stores I checked.ZTE Avid Plus LTE Android phone $20.98 (reg $69.99) 080-15-0100Samsung Galaxy Core Prime LTE Android phone $26.98 (reg $89.99) 080-15-0038Coolpad Rouge LTE Android phone $27.98 (reg $39.99) 080-15-0039ZTE Z64 Hotspot $34.98 (reg $49.99) 080-15-0033Coolpad Catalyst (aka Ocas) LTE Android phone $41.98 (reg $59.99) 080-02-1328LG K7 LTE Android phone $62.98 (reg $89.99) 080-02-1321HTC Desire 530 LTE Android phone $90.98 (reg $129.99) 080-02-1322Image: Phones and phone cards CC BY 2.0 ) by Clean Wal-Mart