Walmart Begins Selling the Mac For the First Time

Walmart is teaming up with Apple to sell the Mac for the first time. From a report: In a press release today, the company said that it is now selling the base model M1 MacBook Air online and in select stores for $699. The move comes a week after Apple introduced the new M3 MacBook Air and stopped selling the M1 MacBook Air itself. While Walmart has historically sold Apple devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, it has never sold Macs directly. Instead, it's relied on third-party partners to sell the Mac through its online marketplace.

Obvious stock clearance

[xack]

Walmart used to sell cheap pcs with the infamous "Lindows" as well, any old junk to keep their monopoly going.

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[Tony Isaac]

I'm confused.

Apple = cheap PC? Old junk?
Monopoly? Walmart has an 8.6% market share of the US retail market. That's big, but nowhere near a monopoly.

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[Stormwatch]

That's not the current model, so you could perhaps call it old.

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[Anonymous Coward]

You sure are one mouthy mf'er. If nobody cares, why do you? Go gargle some Federalist Society balls and leave this forum- your input is neither wanted nor necessary.

I remember seeing Macs at walmart in the early 90s

[ebunga]

Like, they had more macs on display than PCs, which was kind of annoying.

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[irving47]

Performas?

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[Lije Baley]

YES, the gimpy Macs are back!

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[NoMoreACs]

Like, they had more macs on display than PCs, which was kind of annoying.

You mean, kind of about time!

Not anymore

[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

They're already sold out.

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[omnichad]

Looks available to me. But they haven't arrived in stores yet. They probably didn't even let the ink dry on the deal before listing it online but have to physically ship the laptops to stores for them to be available in stores since online orders are probably getting drop-shipped.

"Discounted"

[CAIMLAS]

Sounds like it's "new, old stock", and there's not a whole lot of it.

The M1s have been very popular but they're EOL'd at this point. They're still quite capable, however, and I suspect the M1 will be a useful device for most computing tasks for at least 5 more years, at least in their higher (16GB) memory and storage (512GB) configuration.

Still, $700 seems a bit high, considering that's only $300 less than they were with 16GB and 512GB the Christmas before last, renewed. On Amazon you can pick up a renewed model for $50 less, which also seems high - but I suppose the quality is there vs the alternatives from both Apple... and there's really nothing quite as capable from a PC maker yet, sadly.

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[alvinrod]

You still get the better build quality and software support that probably makes $700 worth it. I purchased a MacBook Air for my mother back when they still had Intel CPUs and they were more expensive than $700 because I got tired of doing tech support on shitty Windows craptops that would only last for three years max and Vista was hot garbage. Even though it was a far more paltry CPU for the time relative to what the M1 is now, she had that computer for just shy of a decade before it needed to be replaced.

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[CAIMLAS]

I bought an M1 very shortly after getting my hands on one and trying it for the first time. It was a no brainer, the technology was that much better than even the previous generation of Apple high end laptops.

Okay, Walmart

[93 Escort Wagon]

How about you also start accepting regular NFC payments - such as Apple Pay - rather than your own bastard spawn of hell, Walmart Pay?

Start selling there, go downhill?

[magarity]

I'm reminded of a business article about the CEO of Snapper recounting how he had to tell WalMart that no, they may not sell his company's mowers. He didn't want the brand diluted by Walmart's inevitable crush on suppliers to lower quality in order to lower price. Seems Apple either doesn't know or imagines they are immune.

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[Can'tNot]

Well, no. You've got the reason why Walmart doesn't sell Macs, and why they were very slow to adopt iPhones: Walmart insists that their suppliers give them a discount, and Apple wouldn't do it.

So what we've got here, as other posters have pointed out, is Apple clearing some old stock. The one time that they're willing to sell products at the kind of discount which will please Walmart.

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[Plumpaquatsch]

If you and others believe Apple has enough back stock to make it worth for Walmart to bother putting up signs in their stores for the computers, you are likely on the wrong track. Because Apple is famous for having low inventory.

https://www.thestreet.com/appl... [thestreet.com]

https://www.supplychaintoday.com/apples-inventory-management-lean/

https://supplychaindigital.com/technology/tim-cook-supply-chain-guru-behind-apple-growth

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[Can'tNot]

Well it's not necessarily inventory of full-blown laptops. They could be overstocked in components, maybe they have too many M1s or something. TSMC doesn't do JIT manufacturing, so chips are something with which Apple does need to hold significant inventory.

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[Plumpaquatsch]

You think Apple overstocked on M1 SOCs because TSMC accidentally build more than Apple ordered, and now Apple "had to" build a huge number of MacBook Air M1 and sell them to Walmart? Well, I guess you have the right to believe that.

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[Can'tNot]

because TSMC accidentally build more than Apple ordered

I have no idea where this came from. You have to book production at TSMC years in advance. If Apple overestimated how many they would need, then they would have extras. There's no accident required.

And that's assuming that it's M1's that they're overstocked on. Which I floated as a possibility, and I think is a good possibility, but I certainly never claimed "that's what I think happened."

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[Plumpaquatsch]

Sure. They couldn't have said "make M2s instead of M1". That's rule One of the TSMC club.

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[Can'tNot]

They couldn't have said "make M2s instead of M1".

I guess what you're trying to suggest is that TSMC runs on a JIT process, where chips are produced as needed. Which, as I've already covered, is not true. TSMC is not a JIT supplier.

This has gotten a little ridiculous.

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[Plumpaquatsch]

Yup, because you believe that Apple is unable to handle that. Thanks for confirming you have no idea what you are talking about.

Not for the first time.

[phoenixwade]

The Performa line was sold by just about everyone in the early 90's