Target To Start Selling iPods Again?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
A reader of Macfixit reports that his local Target had a sign which said "Apple iPods Coming in July".

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Good! Means I don't have to schlep all the way down to Atlanta to get one now.



  • Reply 2 of 14
    macusersmacusers Posts: 840member
    cool, i wont have to go all the way to Lenox Square, or i should say, i dont have to ask my dad to drive me all the way to Lenox Square
  • Reply 3 of 14
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Wow, Atlanta is really takin' it on the chin tonight! Nobody wants to go there.







    Where's Drewprops? He'll defend it!



  • Reply 4 of 14
    a@rona@ron Posts: 201member
    I had asked at my local Target yesterday about when they will bring back the iPods and they said they doubt they will ever get them back. The one employee asked another one and his response was "we only sold 4 of them tops, because we don't offer any type of product protection." To which I replied "yeah and having them off to the side of the counter where no one looks really helped sales too I'm sure". Everytime I went in there half of them had no idea what the iPod actually was good for, why it was better then most mp3 players, and eventually asked me questions to fill in on their lack of product knowledge... It's a shame really, I always get coupons from Target for 10-15% off.



    A@ron
  • Reply 5 of 14
    brunobruinbrunobruin Posts: 552member
    When I checked my local Targets a few weeks back for discontinued iPods, the team member at one store told me had had heard just that morning that they would be carrying iPods again. He even showed me where they would be displayed, which made me think it was more than just random gossip.



    A@ron, I had a 10-percent coupon on me that day, I was hoping to get an iPod on the cheap!
  • Reply 6 of 14
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    I will reiterate, selling iPods at Target/WalMart/K-Mart/whatever isn't a good idea. There are just too many of them, all of which need to be stocked unless they plan on making the iPod a special-order item (<-- pointless).
  • Reply 7 of 14
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Even with all the PC/Windows users out there, Eugene? I could understand if this was still a Mac-only product, only appealing to a small group of an already small niche market.



    But everyone has a computer it seems. And everyone likes music.



    I do wish Apple would hype the iPod a bit more. Perhaps when iTunes for Windows is released, that'll be the big start of something?



    Maybe at this exact moment, the Target/Wal-mart thing might not be a hot idea (for the reason you stated). But who's fault is that?



    I seem to recall ONE iPod commercial (and a rather annoying, doesn't-tell-me-anything-about-it one at that) over a year or so ago!







    Steve routinely gets on stage and pumps the whole "digital hub" thing and proclaims his (and Apple's) love for music and "all these wonderful devices" and the things Apple lets us do with them, etc.



    But, as in a gazillion cases before, he's kinda preaching to the choir. WE already know.



    Make people like my Mom, sister and next-door neighbor aware of this stuff.



    My Mom wouldn't know an iPod if it hit her in the head, and she reads tons of magazines, watches TV and the news, is online with cable Internet access, etc.
  • Reply 8 of 14
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    It's a $300 tech-toy being sold at a plastic palace / bargain bin. I don't see the connection. I don't ever walk into Target expecting to buy electronics, and the people who do aren't just going to shack up with the iPod. In two years Apple has sold 200,000 iPods. I really wonder if they need to put iPods in 1000+ Target stores in addition to Best Buy, CompUSA and other regional stores. That's a lot of inventory to keep...
  • Reply 9 of 14
    chromoschromos Posts: 191member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Eugene

    It's a $300 tech-toy being sold at a plastic palace / bargain bin. I don't see the connection. I don't ever walk into Target expecting to buy electronics, and the people who do aren't just going to shack up with the iPod. In two years Apple has sold 200,000 iPods. I really wonder if they need to put iPods in 1000+ Target stores in addition to Best Buy, CompUSA and other regional stores. That's a lot of inventory to keep...



    I hope your "200,000" figure was a typo. In Steve's music keynote last month, he announced that Apple has sold 700,000 iPods since launch. Quite a difference.



    By the by, I don't lump Target in with Wal-Mart or Kmart. Just as I don't lump Apple in with Dell. At least Target has a little more style.
  • Reply 10 of 14
    pscatespscates Posts: 5,847member
    Yeah, we've been down this road before (in an AppleOutsider thread, I believe). There is a HUGE difference between Target and the other places mentioned.



    There just is, on every single level.



    And you know what I'm talking about.







    I wouldn't expect K-mart to stock iPods because they've really, over the years, have come to signify and represent basement-level shit. The few times I've been in one in the past couple of years, I'm amazed (not in a good way) at everything about it. Ugh.



    Wal-mart is one step above it, but, overall, still doesn't present an image of anything remotely representing stylish, modern or hip. It's blue-collar stuff at blue-collar prices for blue-collar folks. And there's NOTHING wrong with that (because I'm a blue-collar guy from a blue-collar family/background). But I just don't see that crowd, overall, plunking down money for an iPod either. I just don't.



    Target? In California and now Tennesse - and all points in between (I lived in the metro Washington DC area for a year or so in the late 90's) and I've visited Target stores in the Southwest and north of the Mason-Dixon line) simply has an entirely different vibe/appeal/client base. Not better, not smarter, not superior. Just different. The stuff they sell (kitchen, housewares, picture frames, office supplies, furniture, etc.) is 50 times more elegant, "designed"-looking, hip (bordering on IKEA-esque, at times). Hell, they sell wastebaskets that look like something you'd see in a modern art museum!







    Here's what I do: for toiletries and household items (paper towels, Comet, laundry detergent, etc.) I go to Wal-mart...better prices on that sort of stuff, hands-down!



    If I'm looking for a cool-looking thing to hang my utensils on, or a neat desk accessory holder or a cool bookshelf or nightstand, I go to Target. If I lived somewhere with no CompUSA or Apple Retail Stores (like I currently do), then guess what? I go to Target.



    It's that simple.



    I've had this conversation/observation with a gazillion people over the years and no one has disagreed. It's funny: even in San Diego, in some of the nicer areas, I'll go to a Wal-Mart and the entire vibe and customer-base is a TOTAL 180-degrees from the Target, a mile-and-a-half away.



    I can't explain it, I don't know why, I'm not going to guess on all the socio-economic reasons, etc. I'm just saying...



    So, having said all that, I wouldn't (and I don't think Apple IS) stick iPods in every chain of discount department store. THAT would, indeed, be stupid. Like Eugene says.



    But I would stick them in Target, IF I was going to stick them in any store of that type. We can argue about whether sticking them in ANY mass-market retail store is a good idea or not, but we can't argue that putting them in Target makes more sense than sticking them in the other two. There is no argument, and anyone honest (or who has ever been to all three with any sort of frequency) knows this.







    By the way, on the front page of the yesterday's (Sunday) Best Buy Sunday paper insert, was a big, honkin' picture of the new iPod being touted ($299). It was the 10GB model and an Apple logo was prominently featured. I have to say, this is the first time in ages I've seen ANY Apple product given front-page, high-level focus in any sort of Sunday insert type of thing from Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, etc.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    There's a lot of young wannabe-yuppies who shop at Target. They want the cheapest toilet paper, cheap towels and the Michael Graves status symbol clock and chess set too. I thin the iPod can fit in there, though it does seem disparate. Hell, I've bought some cheapo furniture there just because it isn't as frumpy as Walmart stuff, but it was closer than Ikea.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    idaveidave Posts: 1,283member
    Just noticed today, at the Silverthorne, CO Target an empty space on a shelf with a sign which read "Apple iPod, Coming In July."
  • Reply 13 of 14
    I bought a 10GB iPod from Target back in March and when I got home and opened the box I found it apparently had been used and returned. The back was scratched and all those foil bags for the accessories had been opened. It was also missing the 6-pin to 4-pin Firewire adaptor. I returned it of course as I am not about to pay full price for a used iPod and of course I pointed out all these facts to them. The next day it was back in the display case waiting to be sold to another unsuspecting consumer.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    ijerryijerry Posts: 615member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by TWinbrook46636

    I bought a 10GB iPod from Target back in March and when I got home and opened the box I found it apparently had been used and returned. The back was scratched and all those foil bags for the accessories had been opened. It was also missing the 6-pin to 4-pin Firewire adaptor. I returned it of course as I am not about to pay full price for a used iPod and of course I pointed out all these facts to them. The next day it was back in the display case waiting to be sold to another unsuspecting consumer.



    Not to get off topic here, but I once bought an electric razor from target, and it had been repackaged. It still had hairs from whoever used it the 1st time. I too had to take it back, and I rose a stink about selling something used for full price. Besided that, someone elses hair and oil and whatever else is just gross.



    But, I don't shop at any of the three stores. I used to only shop at Target, but they don't support the organizations that I support (i.e. toys for tots), so I stopped shopping there. For all the other stuff, my wife is in the military so I get good prices anyway. And our store on base sells Mac stuff, so I am a happy camper.
Sign In or Register to comment.