Northbridge Mall bid farewell last week to the AT&T store. The same location had just been a Unicel store as recently as this spring.

On Friday, empty boxes and displays sat inside of the vacant store.

In April, AT&T announced former Alltel, Unicel and Verizon Wireless customers joining AT&T would see a change as AT&T expands its service in Minnesota.

The AT&T store, at 2574 N. Bridge Ave. in Albert Lea, closed Wednesday as a part of the regional closures and consolidations of stores AT&T acquired when it purchased Unicel and some properties that competitor Verizon Wireless had to release as part of Verizon’s purchase of Alltel in 2009.

“Since the acquisition of Alltel and Unicel sites, they have been working on consolidation of the stores in the region,” said Alex Carey, Minnesota and Northern plain regional spokesman for AT&T.

Those properties in this area were rebranded as AT&T on April 10. Stores that are closing have only officially been AT&T for a little over three months.

According to Carey, there were three employees working at the AT&T store when it closed. He said the company is working with the employees by offering them a list of open job positions and giving them financial assistance if they decide to relocate to a new position within AT&T.

The products will go to other stores in the region or return to the regional headquarters. There is not an overabundance of products because the stores are usually restocked on a regular basis, allowing them to hold less inventory.

Representatives from the Northbridge Mall could not be reached for comment.

In Albert Lea, Verizon Wireless remains the dominant cellular provider. It has stores at Trail’s Travel Center and at 2718 Bridge Ave. Walmart is an authorized national retail distributor of multiple wireless carriers including AT&T.

“Any customers seeking service should go to a national retail distributor like Walmart,” Carey said. “They offer the same services as AT&T stores.”

The former Unicel location at 1015 W. Frontage Road, Suite 200, in Owatonna has also been shuttered. One of the Mankato locations will also be closed as a part of the consolidations and closures. Both stores were acquired in the purchase of Unicel.

AT&T acquired the properties, including licenses, network assets, and approximately 1.6 million subscribers in 79 service areas across 18 states. They paid $2.35 billion in cash for the businesses.

On Aug. 7, 2008, Verizon Wireless announced it had completed the purchase of Rural Cellular Corp. for $2.66 billion in cash and assumed debt.

Unicel, which was originally a part of Rural Cellular Corp., came to the Albert Lea community when it purchased Cellular One from Alltel in June of 2007. After Alltel had purchased Midwest Wireless and Cellular One, its licensing and coverage areas overlapped, thus Alltel gave up Cellular One, and Unicel picked it up.

AT&Ts global headquarters is in Dallas, Texas, and employs 266,590 employees worldwide.