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Apple Bringing Store-Within-a-Store Concept to Target?

Friday January 6, 2012 6:07 am PST by Eric Slivka

AppleInsider reports that Apple is planning to launch a test program later this year that would see the company open "store-within-a-store" concepts in 25 Target stores around the United States. The stores would be similar to the "Apple Shops" found in a number of Best Buy locations.

According to a source familiar with Apple's plans, the company plans to begin operating Apple-branded areas within 25 larger Target stores in locations which can't support a standalone Apple Store.

The initial opening would be a small start, given that Target, the second-largest discount retail chain in the US, operates 1752 stores in the US.

The report notes that Apple has had a long-standing arrangement with Target for the retailer to feature iPods in its stores, a relationship that has since expanded to include the iPad and iPhone. With the test program, these select Target locations may soon also begin selling Mac products in its stores in addition to providing other dedicated Apple product sales support.

Best Buy Apple Shop (Source: Best Buy)
Many Best Buy Apple Shops are run under the Apple Solutions Consultants, which utilizes Apple-employed consultants to provide expertise within the Best Buy stores, although Best Buy employees may also assist customers.

Top Rated Comments

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MultiMediaWill

30 months ago

My local petsmart already has one of these.

Rating: 15 Positives

nylonsteel

30 months ago

re original article

i'm ok with it - as long as aapl employees are staffing these

most target and best buy employees i've dealt with have no clue or seem like they hate life

Rating: 14 Positives

Kyle4

30 months ago

Not sure how to save this as an image, but here you go.

http://qkme.me/35njwy (http://qkme.me/35njwy)

Rating: 12 Positives

FFArchitect

30 months ago

Much better venue than Wal-mart.

Rating: 10 Positives

AppleFan1984

30 months ago

I can't wait for a photo that shows this Apple store-within-a-store with other brand logos on the main store's wall behind it so we can enjoy lots of needless outrage. ;)

Rating: 8 Positives

sessamoid

30 months ago

Apple is doing this because Target shares the same retail philosophy as Apple.

Nobody here has picked up on the fact that the guy who Apple brought in to start the Apple retail initiative (Ron Johnson, now CEO of JC Penny) was VP of Merchandising at Target.

Rating: 7 Positives

MacFreak2011

30 months ago

I have overheard the 'sales people' at the local Best Buy on occasion rip the Mac to a customers face when they ask about it. I have gotten involved in some of the more egregious episodes that I've witnessed. Once a 'sales person' said that the Macs are 'notoriously harder to use than the PC with Windows 7'. And the customer repeatedly asked what made it so hard to use and the 'salesperson' said that 'Macs don't run windows or any of the PC software and that getting your PC data on a Mac is nearly impossible'.

Yes! The Mac is doomed because it can't run 'Windows software'. I grabbed a box of Microsoft Office and showed the customer and said that it reads PC data with no problem. The 'salesperson' said that 'Macs don't have floppy disks' which I pointed out that none of the PC's they sold had one either'. The guy then huffed and walked away.

That's hilarious, I'm actually banned from my local best buy because I overheard a sales person tell someone that the solid state drive on a macbook air is far less reliable than a conventional drive, and after so many reads/writes gives out, usually in the time period of a year. He was talking to a little old lady that knew nothing about computers and just wanted to check her email, and he was trying to force a 15" pro on her. I corrected him in front of a few people and told the lady what she should be looking at, which got the district manager involved and me banned for life.

Rating: 7 Positives

bushido

30 months ago

we have lots of those here in germany because we have barely apple stores

Rating: 6 Positives

AustinIllini

30 months ago

People make fun of the Apple geniuses, but people at best buy and the like are just so upset all the time. If they could get two or three apple geniuses in the store, I like the idea, otherwise I would worry target employees would tarnish apple's customer service image.

Rating: 6 Positives