Photos emerged today from the Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) retail news website IfoAppleStore that show the company’s new retail concept. The pictures display an Apple store built entirely inside of a Walmart. The store collaborating with Apple on the projected is located in Lowell, in Arkansas. As the picture above shows the new space uses the same modes and trappings of regular Apple stores, incorporating the wood paneling and minimalist product placement. The company’s unique motif is certainly continued in this design.
There have been rumors recently of an expansion of store within a store retail for Apple in Sam’s Club a retailer that is part of the Walmart Family. The pictures released today seem to give credence to those rumors, many suggesting that the Lowell branch’s display is a prototype for extensive plans the companies hope to partner on. If this is indeed a tester expect displays like these to start appearing in stores around the country in a short time span. Apple is not known for waiting around on ideas it believes will boost sales.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) actually pioneered the technique of setting up a branded store within a store in 1997 in a deal with CompUSA. The technique continues to be used at some leading big box stores including Best Buy and Target. If Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) can make this concept expand to replicate the premium glossy feel of the regular Apple stores for customers then this could be a big retail move for the company. Walmart stores handle a huge amount of the country’s retail market, even in consumer electronics, and with the addition of Apple’s marketing touch this concept could be given legs. The premium consumer experience offered in the lofty confines of a big box store could be just the thing to give Apple’s already stellar sales an even greater boost.
