There is no difference in phones, plans and deals between authorized dealers (the places you are seeing, Best Buy is an authorized dealer as well) and the provider owned stores.  The authorized dealers are required to offer the same offers, phones, promos etc.... as the corporately owned kiosks and stores.  Authorized dealers get a cut of every sale and at times can not present you with the best deal available because they make their money solely off commission.  They also get spiffs for pushing certain products at certain times.  Given my choice I always go to a corporately owned store.  The sales staff are more knowledgeable and more fair since they are salary plus commission.

If you are union minded the reps at the ATT corporately owned stores are represented by the CWA union.

And AT&T was the biggest telecom contributor to Scott Walker's campaign for governor. It's tough to spend your money to do the most good... back to the phone- I recommend anything with a removable sim card. If your data can't be easily transferred from one phone to another, you might be stuck if your phone breaks.

My experience has been the opposite of Ruthie's.  I have a basic Samsung phone through AT&T.  At the large AT&T store near Arby's in Superior the phone was $149.00 with a two year contract.  The same phone was $0.97 at WalMart with a two year AT&T contract.  And the WalMart employee made sure all of my contacts and other info transferred correctly from my old phone plus gave me an extra charger and case for free.

R,

Hot damn! That is a good deal.  I wasn't even looking at getting a new phone, but I like the cheap plans.  

I am guessing you have no problems with service in Duluth? Yes/no?  

The $25 plan looks good, but I love the $40 plan.  I have verizon, but their new plans (I have an old Alltel account) are too expensive.

Go buy a TracFone from Ryan Nelson at Best Buy.

I was going to post about my coworker R's awesome Virgin USA plan, but some random R beat me to it... ;)

I had a VirginUSA phone before. No probs, great service, and some promos to make it even cheaper if you pay attention to their emails. The only downside is all of the marketing makes you feel really old and out of touch.

Get and iPhone and be happy.

Go see Ryan Nelson at Best Buy and call him a hotshot.

@ Hot Shot. Do you really not work on any commission selling phones at Best Buy?  No spiffs either?  My wife has worked at number of cell phone places over the years and there was always some incentive for selling phones.  So a guy who sells 5 iPhones in one day with all the extras  makes no more than the guy who sells one car charger?  

But to answer the original question, I would base my decision more on the phone.  Look into iphone, blackberry, and android and figure out which one fits you best.  I would seriously research online reviews for whatever smartphone model is offered for cheap on a prepaid plan.  Personally I am very happy with the iPhone.

I can see how it would work out nicely for the buyer.  My wife at times worked at places that had incentives on certain phones at certain times.  So a salesperson could be looking at an extra $20 if they sell the Samsung over the Nokia for instance.  Of course a problem arises if the Samsung happens to suck but the salesperson pushes it anyway.  She would try and be honest and steer them towards the right phone regardless of commission, but she was definitely in the minority.

I will also read your palm at no extra charge.