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WalMart To Sell iPod Shuffle?

Sounds like I have a full day tomorrow:
Go to Walmart, buy bread, cheese, socks, a new TV, an iPod Shuffle, a bike, a Veggie Tails video, tulip bulbs, a bean bag chair, get an oil change for my car, eat at the in store McDonalds and help smuggle in a few more illegal immigrants so they can make a few bucks cleaning out the toilet stall after some 350 lb woman got so upset that Walmart ran out of family sized Cheetos she messed herself.

God Bless Walmart!!!
 
Wal-Mart did sell Apples

FYI for those who are mindlessly ranting about the evils of Wal-Mart selling Apple products and how it will destroy the brand reputaion, In the late 90's Wal*Mart did sell Apple Computers in there electronics department and even carried a seperate Mac Software section.

And anyone who thinks it is better to buy anything at Best Buy rather than Wal-Mart or any other big box retailer for that matter, needs to do some serious research on how close the business practices of ALL these major retailers are. The main and most important difference is if you buy your iPod shuffle at Best Buy without an extended warranty plan and it stops working you are S.O.L., you will NEVER see your money back.

Gotta love the Wal-Mart return policy.
(Save your Wal-Mart return policy horror stories for the the fiction section of Mac Rumors, if they don't give you your money back with a smile than you have abused the system.)
 
BAD MOVE APPLE!! :mad: :( Wal-Mart is an evil, evil company. Sure they will get you volume, but now they own your soul. They will put more price pressure on you than you can beleive.

Which means cheaper products, less quality. This better not lead to more deals. I really thought Apple was above this. I am so disappointed.
 
quackattack said:
BAD MOVE APPLE!! :mad: :( Wal-Mart is an evil, evil company. Sure they will get you volume, but now they own your soul. They will put more price pressure on you than you can beleive.

Which means cheaper products, less quality. This better not lead to more deals. I really thought Apple was above this. I am so disappointed.
Click to expand...

Yeah, because Wal-Mart selling Apple computers in the 90's really forced Apple to lower their prices.
 
xsnightclub said:
FYI for those who are mindlessly ranting about the evils of Wal-Mart selling Apple products and how it will destroy the brand reputaion, In the late 90's Wal*Mart did sell Apple Computers in there electronics department and even carried a seperate Mac Software section.

And anyone who thinks it is better to buy anything at Best Buy rather than Wal-Mart or any other big box retailer for that matter, needs to do some serious research on how close the business practices of ALL these major retailers are. The main and most important difference is if you buy your iPod shuffle at Best Buy without an extended warranty plan and it stops working you are S.O.L., you will NEVER see your money back.

Gotta love the Wal-Mart return policy.
(Save your Wal-Mart return policy horror stories for the the fiction section of Mac Rumors, if they don't give you your money back with a smile than you have abused the system.)
Click to expand...

Yeah, but Best Buy? Target? Only one of each in my city, but we somehow have 4 Walmarts, not including 2 Sam's Club stores. They may have the same business practices, but I don't see Best Buy destroying the local economy.

Fishes,
narco.
 
narco said:
Yeah, but Best Buy? Target? Only one of each in my city, but we somehow have 4 Walmarts, not including 2 Sam's Club stores. They may have the same business practices, but I don't see Best Buy destroying the local economy.

Fishes,
narco.
Click to expand...

Thats odd, Green Bay has 2 Wal-Marts,1 sams club, 2 targets, 2 Kmarts, 2 Home Depots, 3 Shopkos, 2 kohls, 1 best buy, 1 circuit city, 2 menards, and numerous other big box grocery stores. Your example has no logic that any store is destroying your local economy.

But if it puts the availability for people to buy an iPod shuffle that have walmarts nearby that don't have Apple stores or best buys, all the better for Apple and us Apple users.
 
Booo Walley-World

IMHO, Walley-World or Wal-Mart, Sells inferior products, at least thats the mindset... whether you buy something at Wal-Mart, and save a few, I'd much rather give Best-Buy, Ultimate Electronics, or heaven forbid CompUSA (Mac User Hell imo) at least then I feel like i'm giving my money to people who've earned it not some faceless corporation like Wal-Mart... if Wal-Mart sells I won't buy... (iPod Shuffle not switch to PC)...

Wal-Mart=Cheap (and onry)

Apple=High Quality products for reasonable price (for me at least)

-Aldaris
 
SiliconAddict said:
Sold their soul to the Devil Apple did. Normally I’m not ravenously opposed to any one company on principle but Walmart is actually worse then Microsoft in terms of their business practices and how they treat their employees.
Normally I would be pro any choice Apple makes but I think this is a mistake. Best Buy, fine. Target, fine. CompUSA, fine. Circuit City, fine. Walmart. Not so fine.
Click to expand...

I don't think this is as horrible as it's being made out to be, but I agree with regard to Waldo World Arena. To put things in perspective (and bring some emotionally-laced hyperbole into it!) if Microsoft is the Beltway Sniper, Wal*Mart is Jeffrey Dahmer.

~J
 
Kagetenshi said:
I don't think this is as horrible as it's being made out to be, but I agree with regard to Waldo World Arena. To put things in perspective (and bring some emotionally-laced hyperbole into it!) if Microsoft is the Beltway Sniper, Wal*Mart is Jeffrey Dahmer.

~J
Click to expand...

So you are then implying that Wal-Mart has discriminating tastes towards young ethnic men?

Maybe a better analogy would be to compare wal-mart to Timothy McVeigh

either way, odd and disturbing analogy.

But hey, as long as it introduces more people, who do not have access, to the wonderful world of Apple products, the better
 
Perfect way to get rid of the "Apple is Evil" talk a short while ago everyone was doing because of the ThinkSecret lawsuit.

Now Apple is hiding behind a really big evil corporation, now they are suddenly angels. :p
 
xsnightclub said:
close the business practices of ALL these major retailers are.
Click to expand...

Are you just dense or just ill informed? Walmart is one of the most sued companies in recent American history and there IS a reason. Just do a google search on Walmart and sucks. Do a little research before comparing Walmart’s business practices to everyone else’s. In my case I know from a couple people who have worked at Walmart and seen their business practices first had from a managerial perspective. They actively do crap such as go out of their way to hire non-union, screw their employees over with benefits, dink around with zoning, actively try and coerce city councils to give them leeway (In the case I’m thinking about its in regards to zoning.) and that is just off the top of my head.
They are the scum bags of the retail industry.
 
SiliconAddict said:
Are you just dense or just ill informed? Walmart is one of the most sued companies in recent American history and there IS a reason. Just do a google search on Walmart and sucks. Do a little research before comparing Walmart’s business practices to everyone else’s. In my case I know from a couple people who have worked at Walmart and seen their business practices first had from a managerial perspective. They actively do crap such as go out of their way to hire non-union, screw their employees over with benefits, dink around with zoning, actively try and coerce city councils to give them leeway (In the case I’m thinking about its in regards to zoning.) and that is just off the top of my head.
They are the scum bags of the retail industry.
Click to expand...

And are you dense or just plain ill informed to think that the other big box retailers don't do this stuff also. BTW do a google search on target and sucks, best buy and sucks etc... And also the likely hood of being sued has more to do with how deep your pockets are and how high profile your company is than with actually doing anything wrong. Not that I am saying they don't do anything wrong, they do along with the rest of corporate America. And while you are blasting walmart for hiring non-union and trying for tax breaks and incentives, take a close look at where our precious Apple products are made, Dolt.
 
Macrumors said:
According to Apple Insider, Apple has entered into a partnership with WalMart to distribute the iPod Shuffle in possible all of their nearly 5000 retail stores.
Click to expand...

and???

Its not exactly that good, I mean surley over there you guys get most iPods and Mac products in other Electrical Outlets??

Or is WalMart the only one? I may be wrong?
 
Apple most likely gave Wal-Mart preferential pricing for the shuffles. Wal-Mart could destroy Apple if it wanted to. In comparison, Apple is a drop in the bucket to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart will set the price, Apple will have to follow.
 
@xsnightclub, SiliconAddict

You know, spicing your arguments up with ad hominems aren't going to make them any better...

@xsnightclub

IIRC the interesting thing about Chineese industry is that up untill very recently they had a never ending supply of cheap labour from the poorer western rural areas. Now however that the Chineese economy has started to crawl up to the point where the industry jobs are starting to become non-competetive and there is a worker shortage. The industries of course are trying to keep there low wage costs by increasing advertising in rural areas, but it's to not much use. They are slowly starting to increase wages and benefits and softening working hours.
 
walmart probably has one of the worst "human rights" records out there in terms of major corporations since the industrial revolution. and yet, if you were to sum the net worth of the living waltons, they would become the wealthiest living person on the planet by a fair margin. to compare them to the unfortunately low standards set by big business in general is not remotely comparable. the waltons and their company (and the way they exploit cheap and illegal labor) is completely inexcusable. I am currently part of america's middle/lower class, i buy apple because of all the reasons you guys can relate to, and i would not touch walmart with a stolen credit card. they are absolute f**kers on any scale you could create. seriously. i understand apple's desire to outsell microsoft and all, and I have heard that "apple is just a business", but when profits become more important than basic moral standards, you need to center yourself.
 
Should help with the coming PlaysForSure campaign. That is an instantly hateable slogan, thanks M$.

*Edit: cause I tend to skip words lately.
 
If Apple is to grow their market share, they need to be on the shelves of places where people shop. Apple products at WalMart, Best Buy and Target is good. No doubt the other big box retailers like Circuit City won't be far behind. Even if Apple is only distributing limited products in these locations (iPods, Mac mini), it puts Apple products in places where people have not been exposed to them. Should lead to people wanting to see more Apple products, either in those locations or they will seek them out elsewhere.

WalMart's business practices are well documented and possibly exaggerated but that is not Apple's problem. They are a business and wider distribution of their products is a good thing. If you don't like WalMart, vote with your wallet and don't shop there. America votes with theirs and shops there in droves.
 
Did I miss something? Is Apple having a problem moving these things that would require a deal like this?
I certainly hope this is Just a rumor. Apple is strong, and they've had great luck with fighting pricing pressure before, but we're talking Wal-Mart here, there's not been a retailer with this kind of power before. This isn't even taking into account the negative image associated with Wal-Mart - if you're going to push product at the prices and using the method that Apple does, aligning yourself with the company best known for using bangladeshi toddlers to sew cheap shirts probably isn't the best route. An air of exclusivity and image has helped Apple a great deal so far, and I don't see much reason to give that up now. I don't see this doing a whole lot of good for Apple.
The one good thing I will say about this rumor is that if any company can resist the iron juggernaut of retail, it's Apple. They've demonstrated a callous disregard for partnerships in the past, and Jobs is legendary for his ego - this is the man who, by proxy of Pixar, told the largest family/animated movie company around what they can do with their partnership. I don't think this will destroy Apple, but I hardly see this as a Good Thing(tm).
 
xsnightclub said:
And are you dense or just plain ill informed to think that the other big box retailers don't do this stuff also. BTW do a google search on target and sucks, best buy and sucks etc... And also the likely hood of being sued has more to do with how deep your pockets are and how high profile your company is than with actually doing anything wrong. Not that I am saying they don't do anything wrong, they do along with the rest of corporate America. And while you are blasting walmart for hiring non-union and trying for tax breaks and incentives, take a close look at where our precious Apple products are made, Dolt.
Click to expand...

God. It’s like talking to a grade schooler. They counterpoint by sticking out their tongue and pouting that they are right so NANANANAN. Sad really.

You do a search on google for anything and you will find complaints pure and simple. I'm talking looking into the company with goggle. Walmart IS one of the worst retail chains out there in terms of both corp culture and employee management. I would suggest you get a clue before you start comparing companies you know nothing about. The other companies, I worked for Best Buy corp campus (Based here in MN.) for 1 year, at least treat their employees with some respect, offer solid benefits and don’t play around with skirting the law and local governments. Everything I've read, and again talked to former employees of Walmart points to them being a scum ball company above and beyond the average company in the US.
Don't argue on a subject you don't know jack **** about. Again I point to Walmart being the most sued company in recent American history. The likelihood of being sued more is based on money and suit merit. There are obviously baloney claims against many big companies but the fact remains that Walmart last year got sued more then the US government. That and they have stopped settling in count and gone ahead with some of these lawsuits. This has caused the number of sketchy suites to drop yet they still are number one in lawsuits in the US.
 
rdowns said:
WalMart's business practices are well documented and possibly exaggerated but that is not Apple's problem. They are a business and wider distribution of their products is a good thing. If you don't like WalMart, vote with your wallet and don't shop there. America votes with theirs and shops there in droves.
Click to expand...


Amen. It does come down to if you don't like it don't buy it or in this case by from a provider. It’s obvious that Apple is trying to get the shuffle into as wide a distribution channel as possible. I hate that they have to deal with Walmart but from a business standpoint it makes perfect sense.
Bah! What ever happened to Apple being this company that didn't like big business? Wasn't Apple anti-big-business in the beginning loathing IBM and the like? Wonder where in Apple's history this changed. :confused:

I’m not condemning the change. I’m just curious if anyone has any insight or was the anti-big-business of Apple just overstated?
 
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