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Walmart Puts Out Google Home Before Official Launch

Back on October 4th Google held its official event for the announcements of the Pixel and Pixel XL, the smartphones that more or less take the place of Google’s Nexus line of smartphones. In addition to the two phones, Google also launched Google Home, their highly anticipated and long-awaited smart speaker which was initially announced back during Google I/O in the beginning of the year. While the Google Home speaker hasn’t officially hit store shelves yet, it would appear that Walmart has put the device out on its shelves before the actual day that it goes on sale.

This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise given that Walmart was stocking the Xiaomi Mi Box on its shelves before the official launch date as well, but having said that, it raises the question of whether or not other Walmart locations will end up doing the same thing with this and other Google products that were announced at the same event, such as the 4K Chromecast and Google Wifi. Although there is only one Walmart location that has been reported to have these in stock and on the shelves, it’s still very possible that other locations in the retail chain will have them on the shelf as well.

According to the details, the consumer who spotted the Google Home speaker at Walmart attempted to buy it, but was told that the store could not sell it to them, so although it’s being displayed along with other items that they can sell there is a chance that they same thing will happen at any other Walmart stores who have put Google Home out on shelves for customers to see. If that is the case, it’s unclear as to why Walmart would put out Google Home if they weren’t intending to sell it. Google Home is supposed to go on sale on November 4th which is just at the end of this week, so the wait to pick one up won’t be long, and whether you get yours at Walmart or you pre-ordered one, you’ll pay the same $129.99 price tag that Google is asking for it.