Staples, America’s largest office retailer, had a page on their website showing an Apple TV with a list price of $49.99. (Since removed.) 9to5Mac reports that they were not able add the item to their cart, because the following page said “Out of stock.”
Staples also recommended a $24.99 Apple Lightning charge and sync cable when you visit the page. In fact, there is a bunch of Apple’s products sitting on “Mockup Pages” section.
The titles for both the Apple TV and the Lightning cable both indicated “test.” 9to5Mac also noted that there were a whole set of Apple products in the mockup lineup.
While Staples has had an Apple Accessories section for a while, it has never contained Apple products. The page contains products form vendors such as Logitech and Belkin.
The mockups could be an error on Staples part, perhaps the mistaken auto-import of inventory from a stock supplier.
It is well known that Staples has wanted to carry Apple products for quite some time.
In 2011, Staples CEO Ron Sargent was quoted as saying that Staples wanted to sell Apple products in the U.S. but was having a hard time getting the products from Apple.
Ron Sargent, Staples chairman and chief executive, also lamented that its nearly 1,600 U.S. stores can’t sell Apple Inc.’s popular products because Apple won’t sell them to Staples. Apple products are sold at Staples stores in Canada and elsewhere internationally, where Apple has the need for Staples’ distribution channel, and the executive expressed hope its U.S. stores would one day sell the iPad and other Apple wares.
If Staples is indeed gearing up to sell Apple products, the exposure can only help Apple’s already healthy bottom line. Anything like this that would expose Apple products to corporate customers can only be a good thing.
