“The very first sighting of a impressive new Apple store-within-a-store concept has appeared at a Walmart store in Arkansas, just 20 minutes from the mass merchandiser’s home office,” Gary Allen reports for ifoAppleStore.
“The new displays could be the prototype for a rumored expansion of in-store Apple displays to Sam’s Club, the warehouse retailing division of Walmart,” Allen reports. “The displays feature tall, double-sided, back-lit graphics, a clean-looking wood table, live display products and under-table accessory storage with security glass.”
Allen reports, “The new look updates previous Apple product displays within Walmart stores that have been notoriously small, invisible and poorly maintained. ”
Read more, and see photos, in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Good!
Oooh! An Apple store in Asda Accrington? Can’t wait.
Excellent.
BTW, Microsoft will have their similar but not-so “innovative” display an isle down in the toy section.
“Toy Selection”?… Aren’t you giving MS more credit than due? You mean one can find their stuff in the discount bins containing the marked down dvd movies.
Is it near the front entrance or something? I hope it’s not so deeply buried that you have to wade through the smelly redneck hordes just to make it there.
You can gauge the quality/economics of a community, by the the people that shop at the Walmart. Likely you’re not much different than the people in your community (even if you “think” you are better than everyone else.)
Big challenge is that Wal-Mart department managers don’t always seem to be from the deep end of the gene pool and may have problems with displaying a sophisticated product. For a time there was an iPhone display in the local WM that was pretty good. When the iP4 came out they continued to show an iP3GS, then they revamped it to show BlackBerrys and don’t presently offer an iPhone. Their iPad display is completely encased in acrylic, with a demo running, but untouchable. This concept will be a real change. I hope it works, and they don’t do stuff like just putting a small pile of on-sale DVD players on the end of the table. Also, get some staffers with enough beans to keep everything working. No need to go back to the days when in-store computer devices just sat there with a blinking green cursor.
They have been installed in Europe for more than a 6/8 months…..it’s not a prototype
Does that mean 3 weeks? (6/8 = 3/4 of a month) or, 6-8 (6 to 8) months? Not trying to be a smartass just wonderin
6-8 months would mean -2 months, by your “logic”. Obviously he meant 6 to 8 months.
I recall the failure of the “store-within-a-store” concept at CompUSA. Although it was tucked into the far right corner of the store, it looked great when it debuted. But the Apple SWAS gradually degraded into a display of largely non-functioning and out-of-date Apple products supplemented by a small shelf of software and a few peripherals.
What will the Walmart Apple SWAS look like after a year? Only time will tell. But I do not expect much based on the rest of the store.
Was in my local WalMart last week – they still have all models of the iPad 2 available, but no new iPads.
One of those fatso Walmart shoppers may just walk right out of the store with an iPad in their crack.