The HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon is still not here, but that isn’t stopping Best Buy from getting its stores ready for the upcoming launch. Tonight we stopped buy a local Best Buy location that’s all prepped for the Thunderbolt, complete with dummy units on display.

According to a store associate, the latest news from the Best Buy higher-ups is that the phone could arrive on Friday, March 11. We were expecting something next week instead, so as not to compete with the iPad 2 unnecessarily, but who knows? Maybe after this long it’s better to just get the phone out there. Then again, Verizon’s been talking like we might not see any of its LTE smartphones for another few months. If that’s the case, Best Buy is going to end up with some very dusty display models.

Posted prices match what we’ve heard so far as well as the most recent advertisements: $300 on-contract, $750 off.

Thanks: Andrew