Verizon pushes ahead in Danbury

Verizon Wireless is hoping to ring in profits at its new store at the Danbury Fair Mall.

As Verizon continues to open stores in New England and the rest of the country, company executives joined city and business leaders last week to announce the opening of the wireless retailer's newest store. Near the mall food court, the store features a host of new products and several sales promotions.

The Verizon store will employ 10 people. During a ribbon-cutting ceremony, company officials donated $1,000 to the Women's Center of Greater Danbury, whose purpose is the prevention and awareness of domestic violence.

"In this economy, with so much negative news about businesses closing and people losing jobs, it is so nice to have a new store opening. This is the largest mall in New England and it signals to others that businesses are still alive and growing here," said Stephen Bull, president of the Greater Danbury Chamber of Commerce.

Those in attendance April 7 included Mayor Mark Boughton and Shay Nagarsheth, Common Council member, both of whom were optimistic about the future of business growth.

"This is the first Verizon business in Danbury," Boughton said. "It brings in employees, and its products will be of use to thousands of people. Any day we have jobs is a good day.''

"We are helping the community and giving back to the community. It's a win-win-win," said Nagarsheth, who is the store manager of Verizon in Brookfield. The Danbury store officially opened March 19.

The store features mobile broadband cards; smart phones, including Android, Palm, and Blackberry; Windows mobile devices; push-to-talk devices, car chargers and cases. Store Manager Adam Chirillo said customers will be treated to 25 percent off all accessories until May 7.

Kyle Pinto, community educator at the Women's Center of Greater Danbury, said the money will go a long way to help the center.

"It enables us to service the free 24-hour hotline," Pinto said. "It also allows us to run various counseling services for free, as well as provides community education."

Industry analysts said Verizon, which has 81,000 employees nationwide, is doing better than its competitors in several areas.

"Verizon, specifically, has done very well, despite the economy. There has been some decline in small retailers, but Verizon is fairly stable," said Daniel Berch, president of Boston-based Pell Research.

"There are a number of factors for their success. They include customers being locked into multi-year contracts and the fact that they offer more high-end services," he added.

Verizon officials said only one of their stores has closed in recent years in New England, although many others continue to open. The latest stores opened this month in Boston and Manchester, N.H.