Wireless Toyz to Double

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI-Executives at electronics-accessories retailer Wireless Toyz plan to double their amount of stores by the end of the year, bringing its unit count to 250. The company opened 65 stores last year, more than doubling its store base, and officials plan to have 1,000 total stores by 2011.

New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia are the new markets the company plans to enter this year. Last year Wireless Toyz opened its first stores in the Denver; San Antonio; San Diego; San Bernardino, CA; Tampa; and Toledo, OH markets. The company’s smallest concentration of stores currently is in the Northeast.

Wireless Toyz is looking for 1,400-sf to 3,000-sf units on the end-caps of shopping centers, revealed Richard Simtob, the company’s chief operating officer, last month at an International Council of Shopping Centers conference in Phoenix. The units have to be far away from the retail stores of wireless carriers, he says.