Saw this comming EE are to close 78 stores where the former Orange and T-Mobile stores (now rebranded EE) are in close proximity. I personally think more will follow.

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/News/23..._branches.aspx

How much did the rebranding of those stores cost?

Already closed the spares in our town

I've seen estimates of around £10k per store. Money totally wasted .... it was an idiotic move, as they surely would have known that keeping two (or more) stores in close proximity would have involved one closing down regardless of the amount of business they were doing.

in wrexham there is an orange and tmobile rebranded as EE practically opposite each other, total waste of money

In some places they're literally next door.

In Gloucester they are next door but one, thought at the time it was a totally stupid idea to have them both open.

In Wakefield there are two in the main shopping centre within 30 seconds of each other, and another 5 minutes away at Trinity Walk.

It was bound to happen, no point in having two stores close together. According to the article, I read most of the staff would be taken into other stores. It was only management that would be at risk. We shall have to see.

We only got one last year which was an Orange shop last year when ever I buy or upgrade my phone I have always done it on line or phone call though but the shops are nice to go in to see how big they are before you get them.

Same in Basingstoke, there's a Greggs pie shop separating them

Make them generic EE keep them open for a bit.. See where customers go most then close the quiet ones. Costly but Makes sense.

In Norwich there are four within about 5 minutes walk of each other - 2 ex T-Mobile, 2 ex Orange - one of each on Gentleman's Walk, one of each in Castle Mall. It's obvious which one in Castle Mall will be closed though, has been since EE (the parent company) was born, so rebranding it was just chucking money away.

I think it might be Leeds where they're literally next door to each other.

Not only that, but common sense would say keep the bigger of the two open. The shop would need to be big enough to handle two lots of customers. Wouldnt be surprised, if they close both down, and move to a bigger premises in some cases.

It was obvious to me that there would be a number of store closures. A lot of places had both a T-Mobile and Orange store, now with the merger each store does all 3 networks.

They are opening an additional 4 also so this could be the case with those 4...

We also have 3 within about 5 mins walk of each other so there'll definitely be closures here.

we are on orange (3 contracts), but the orange/EE phone offers have been appalling for the last year or two - so we got handsets/contracts from other providers.

I suppose it depends upon how much it costs to buy out of the lease.

Well they obviously have money to burn

Not exactly a sensible move!

£10K doesn't buy much these days, not a very big refit then, maybe just changed the signage?