“Wal-Mart Stores has quietly begun selling Apple Computer’s popular iPod Minis in select stores, the mega retailer’s first big move into the market for the enormously popular digital music players. The discount chain is selling Minis in a ‘limited number of stores,’ a Wal-Mart representative said Monday. The representative declined to elaborate on how many of the company’s nearly 5,000 stores are carrying the device,” Alorie Gilbert and Ina Fried report for CNET News.
“The Mini is one of the few Apple products the discount chain sells, but that may soon change. The companies are rumored to be working out an agreement for Wal-Mart to begin selling the iPod Shuffle, a music device Apple unveiled last month. A report on enthusiast site AppleInsider speculated that Wal-Mart may order as many 250,000 iPod Shuffles,” Gilbert and Ina Fried report.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Wal-Mart to sell Apple iPod shuffle? Walmart.com music service is ‘temporarily unavailable’ – January 28, 2005
magic word = stock
nough said
umm… what’s an ipod mini?
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It’s official: Thanks to the iPod, Apple is now unstoppable.
Who in the H#LL would’ve ever thought that Sprawl-Mart would cave so quickly? Next they’ll be selling the Mac mini.
Everyone else (Gates, Glaser, Dell, etc.) must be kicking themselves now that the sleeping giant known as Apple has awakened. But hey, tough s*#t for them — it’s not as though they didn’t have several YEARS since Jobs returned to try and do better than Apple. It’s just that they CAN’T!
Buncha f#&^ing losers. I hope Apple pulverizes them all.
it has begun.
Wal-Mart is famous for pressuring its suppliers into lowering their prices just to be able to get their products into Wal-Mart, in fact there has been speculation that the recent Procter & Gamble/Gillette merger was primarily designed to give the new company more power in dealing with Wal-Mart. Now Apple, a company that is well known for being unwilling to cut prices just to get a sale is going into Wal-Mart as well, could this be seen as chinks in the armor of Wal-Mart?
That rumbling in the distance you hear..is the sound of terror in gates’s heart. IT HAS BEGUN!!
I like Apple, but not enough to get me into a Wal-Mart. Really, I think this is a mistake. People bitched the other day about Best Buy… where are the whiners now? Where are they going next… to the “Everything’s a Dollar” store.
When you think about the fact that Apple has beaten the likes of Sony, Dell, Virgin, Real Networks, and apparently Wal-Mart in the hottest commercial market space makes one shake their head. Maybe that is why Bill Gates is sooooooo stressed these days.
I don’t necessarily like Wal-Mart (I much prefer Target), but I noticed that there is a fundamental difference from Wal-Marts in California and ones in the Midwest. In my opinion, the WM’s in the Midwest are much nicer than the ones in CA. Overall, I still prefer Target anywhere over WM anytime.
Other than that, I think that Apple is finally getting noticed by some major people and inroads are slowly being made. Yes, that means that the average Joe may have an iPod and it won’t be exclusive to the rich, hip, etc. Who cares? It gets Apple more notoriety and consequently, more money, which means more R&D, more innovation, and better products. I don’t think this is such a bad thing. In this case, the iPod is a product (and Mac stuff in general) that really is better and for once the best is winning, at least in the case of the iPod, and hopefully soon Macintosh computers.
I just want to see the Microsoft giant crumble.
i know they have that failure of a music store.. but.. wal-mart not selling iPods?.. that’s just idiotic
What’s the big deal?
iPods were selling in Sam’s Club, the discount club arm of Wal-Mart, over Xmas. Of course, they were the HP variety, but iPods, nevertheless.
whatever happened to Wal-Mart’s online music store? Non starter?
Yes! iPod for every trailer park trash!
the fact that the nations’ largest retail company may be selling Apple products can only mean the eventual downfall of the evil empire known as microsoft. Is that a bad thing? i don’t think so,and i would bet that anyone who uses a Macintosh computer would agree with me,
Does this also go for ASDA (Wal-Mart’s UK arm)? If so, I’ll be able to walk happily through the local council estates displaying my mini. All the chavs won’t need to steal it as they’ll already have one.
Paid for by the child benefit they get for their eight kids, of course. But at least it stops them spending it on fags, cheap jewellery from Elizabeth Duke and bad bleachjob hairdos.
Way to go, Apple! Anyone who’s serious about Apple’s long-term health should applaud this move.
I feel a great disturbance in the force. But it is good.
I hope they force wal-mart to play by the same rules as everyone else; no exceptions. Wal-mart is the driving force in in de-industrializing of the American workforce. Everyone likes a good deal, even a bargain, but eventually there is a cut-out point, and a lot of industries have reached it. Wal-mart always wants to push it further, thus most of their products are now made in China, not the USA. Wonder where your job went? Check the product labels on your next “I shop every day at (super) Wal-mart” trip.
No one can argue with $5,000 store locations…that is mass exposure and visibility to the common man w/a budget. The other thing is that WalMart is in places in this country where there will never, ever, be an Apple Store. That is why I believe the miniMac and the shuffle will be there next. This is big newz, especially considering that WalMart has or had their own music store that didn’t support AAC.
This isn’t the first time Wal-Mart has sold Apple products. In fact, once upon a time you could by a Mac at Wal-Mart. When our Super Wal-Mart was built, just before they moved, they pulled all the dusty old stock out of the back and what did my wonderous eyes see? Two old Performas, brand new, still in the box and covered in about an inch of dust. Oddly enough, someone bought them both.
Believe it or not, I long for a Wal-mart to come to my community. As it stands, I have to drive 55 miles just to do my shopping. Everybody complains that Wal-mart is evil, and takes away from ma and pa stores, but when you live where ma and pa are also brother and sister, and the only place to buy a nice cut of steak is behind Cooter’s slaughterhouse, you begin to long for the convenience of Wal-mart. I guess that’s what I get for not being a native necker. I need to see a city again!!
Magic word: choice. “it was my choice to move to the white trash capital of New England, and now I regret it”.
First of all, all of this hillbilly redneck crapt is getting on my nerves. I happen to live in Arkansas, and have unfortunately developed the accent to prove it. I hate it here in the country, but it’s much better than the city… the people are nicer.
Second. Mom & Pop stores are nothing more than anyone else in this world starting their own business. Unfortunately, they lack the knowledge, contacts, money.. whatever to grow their business into much more than it is. Without that extra benefit, corporate america runs them over, and drives them into bankruptcy. It’s hard to compete with a multi-billion dollar company that can survive on penny profits per sale. They have the capital to survive any losses.
BUT… as a consumer myself… I understand the reasoning of everyone. Personally, I wouldn’t buy from a Mom & Pop Shop myself, as I cannot afford to spend that extra amount. I have to watch my spending, otherwise my future will look as bleek as theirs :-D.
Wal-Mart possibly bringing the Mac Mini to its shelves is AWESOME!!! That means that america in general will begin to subdue its mythological mindset and question the reasoning behind Apples sudden market growth. I mean c’mon. Everyone in the south knows that you must be doing something right if your shits selling in Wally World.
However, I do pray that Apple does not lose sight of its general purpose as a company, the bigger that it grows.
MM
Magic word = light, as in “The rest of the world is beginning to see the light”
Now wouldn’t it be great to see WalMart cancel their failed music download service and announce a joint-venture with Apple’s iTunes Music Store?
That would be sweet. Well, if they sell iTMS gift cards, that will be good enough, but dropping support of WMP in favour of iTMS AAC format would be a great slap in the face for Billy G and Microsoft!
Smell that? That’s the smell of victory!
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Brought to you by the word “history”. “If history is any guide, all great empires eventually fall, Microsoft will be no exception…”
Smell that? That’s the smell of victory!
For who, walmart? apple? or the consumer?