Todd Heiner is doing something a bit unusual during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression: He's talking about opening new stores and hiring more people.

Heiner is chief executive of Express Locations LLC, an operator of T-Mobile and T-Mobile Limited wireless stores in Salt Lake City.

The company, which is based in Salt Lake City, operates 55 cellular phone stores in Utah, Arizona, Washington, Nevada, Idaho, New Mexico, Texas and Oregon.

It was founded four years ago as an All-Tel authorized retailer operator in Phoenix, Tucson, Albuquerque and El Paso, Texas. Earlier this year, the company switched to being a T-Mobile authorized retailer. Since then, it has embarked on an aggressive plan of growth working with T-Mobile.

Since April, Heiner has opened six authorized retailer locations along the Wasatch Front. Those stores employ 30 people. He plans to open seven more stores locally, pushing employment to 65 people in Utah, in the next 45 days.

Throughout the eight states in which his company operates, the company has 55 stores that employ about 350 people. By the holidays, he plans to have 68 locations employing about 400.

"Wireless is still doing well, despite the economy," Heiner says. "Who do you know who has given up their cell phone?"

Consumers are cutting back in a variety of areas, for sure, but various studies show many people are hanging on to their cell phones. In fact, a number of consumers have canceled their land line (and kept their cell phone account) in order to save money.

According to a survey conducted by the Opinion Research Corp. earlier this year, consumers are coping with the recession by getting rid of enhanced services such as texting instead of canceling their cell-phone contracts altogether.

In other cases, they are more thoroughly researching their options when their contract comes up for renewal.

That bodes well for Heiner, who said expanding during a recession has its perks. One of them are motivated landlords eager to find tenants in retail storefronts.

"The landlords today are very eager to lease space at a rate that's significantly lower than the last two years," he said.

Finding workers to staff those locations is also easier than during good economic times, Heiner said.

His new stores are attracting more and better applicants. "We're finding people who are 'overqualified' if you will," he said. If you're going to have hiring problems, Heiner says, "this is the one you want to have."

Some of his new employees have lost jobs in other sectors. Others, such as Shane Young, director of Utah sales, have the luxury of switching jobs for better career opportunities -- a luxury many simply don't have in this downturn.

Young said he considers himself lucky to be employed in the telecommunications sector, which isn't hurting as much as many other industries.

"People will get rid of a lot of things," he said. "The great thing about the wireless communications industry is that no matter how hard times are, many people aren't going to get rid of their cellular phone, their cable or Internet service."