Walmart is expected to carry the Apple iPhone by next week.

Electronics department employees at multiple Walmart locations in central New Jersey said the price is not yet known, but that the iPhone is due on their shelves very soon.

“We’re going to find out everything today,” an electronics specialist at the Watchung, N.J., store said.  Reports first surfaced a few months ago.

Similar reports came this week in the San Jose Mercury News. The big-box retail chain will have a reduced-price 4-GB model of the iPhone, possibly costing just $99, Silicon Valley’s daily newspaper said.

Exclusive U.S. iPhone carrier AT&T said in October that customers can save time by performing a pre-qualifying online credit check and seeing if their existing mobile phone numbers from other carriers can be ported.  However, that only applies to customers who purchase the phone directly from Apple or AT&T, a spokesman said today.