When the Apple Watch hits stores on 24 April, the high-tech jewellery will be showcased in swanky department stores such as Selfridges in London and Galeries Lafayette in Paris.
Before then, you'll be able to buy Apple products for the first time at a chain of discount grocery stores in Austria, once considered by locals to be a place for “only the unemployed.”
The iPhone 5C will go on sale starting next week at Hofer, the Austrian supermarket known for carrying no-name products at rock-bottom prices.
The 5C is Apple's cheaper, plastic model, with eight gigabytes of memory, which is half of what's in the entry-level iPhone 6. While Americans can typically get the 5C for free with a two-year contract, Apple sells an unlocked version for $450 in the US that can be used on any carrier.
Hofer says it will sell the unlocked 5C for €297 ($313)—about €30 less than what it costs at other Austrian electronics shops, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Hofer, a subsidiary of the German retailer Aldi, has sold low-price smartphones and tablets made by Samsung Electronics, as well as Lenovo's Motorola and Medion brands. Hofer says this is the retailer's “first cooperation with Apple.”
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
