Sprint is announcing the grand opening of its first ever Twice the Price outlet in the city of New York. The Twice the Price store is exactly as it sounds like -- according to the official press release, the shop offers hundreds of items priced at two fold their regular price. The first ever of its kind in America, the Twice the Price store is located at 69-43 Grand Avenue, Flushing, New York, and is open from 10 o’clock in the morning until 7 o’clock in the evening.
Okay, okay -- what really is going on here? It appears that major US mobile operator Sprint is taking a dig at industry leader Verizon Wireless. The Twice the Price store even has its own proprietor and president, Uncle Danny, who says that the idea for the store was inspired by the Big Red, specifically in how it offers at services at very high prices. Uncle Danny was quick to cite how Verizon charges its subscribers twice as much for four lines of service of unlimited as an example.
Sticking true to its rather obvious branding, the Twice the Price store offers a wide variety of common items, including potato chips, party supplies, boogie boards, makeup mirrors, cleaning mops, and bottled water, just to name a few, all offered at two times their regular price. Uncle Danny promises that anyone who shops at the Twice the Price store will have a buying experience they will never forget. Oh, before we forget -- the Twice the Price store is opening right next to a Verizon retail outlet.
As far as unorthodox marketing practices are concerned, Sprint is certainly having fun at the expense of the number one wireless service provider in America. The grand opening of the Twice the Price store even comes with a YouTube video that is intentionally made to look as endearingly low budget as possible (with goofy visual and sound effects, and a cast just as hilarious).
For those who are wondering how far the so-called unlimited wars are going to get, well, we might be entering uncharted territory now. Still, if Sprint’s aim was to tell everybody how “insane” Verizon’s pricing is (according to Sprint, customers of the Big Red are made to pay double for four or five lines of service of unlimited data), the opening of the Twice the Price store may just funnel attention to Sprint’s own unlimited data offering, which offers four lines of service at $22.50 a month for each line (with unlimited data, voice calls, and text messaging), and with the fifth line free of charge. Verizon’s pricing for a similar deal? $45 per line of service.
