Report: Apple Stores Coming to Sam's Club

There's always a lot of speculation as to where Apple will open its next retail store. But the latest talk doesn't center around a more aggressive push in Asia or rumors of stores finally landing in South America. Rather, 9to5Mac has claimed that Apple is in talks to put mini-stores within 47 U.S. Sam's Club locations.

Sam's, a subsidiary of Walmart, already sells iPhones, iPads, and iPods in its stores. Citing unknown sources, 9to5Mac said Apple and Sam's are in talks to expand this offering to add what would basically be stores-within-a-store. The retail outlets would offer Apple's full line of products, in addition to support from Apple staffers.

9to5Mac said the two companies are also discussing a backup plan, which would entail Sam's Clubs selling Macs, but without any additional Apple Store features.

It's unclear whether or not Walmart would be involved. However, there have been reports that as a destination for these stores-within-a-store.

Apple has already launched a similar offering inside more than 600 Best Buys. Dubbed "Apple Shops," they sell a selection of Mac gadgets, and some of them have Apple Solution Consultants on hand for assistance.

Target, the country's second-largest discount retailer behind Walmart, would start small with Apple Stores inside 25 of its 1,752 U.S. locations. Apple and Target have a relationship that spans almost a decade, starting in 2002 when Target first started selling iPods. The retailer began selling the iPad in October of 2010, and a month later it got the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 in about 850 locations. However, it doesn't have the iPhone 4S yet, and there's no indication if, or when, that will happen.

Apple's former chief of retail (and the brains behind Apple Stores) Ron Johnson left the company last year to . Last month, Apple . Check out some of Apple's more impressive stores in the slideshow below.