Did you know that there’s a Birkin on the Walmart e-store?

If you were to walk down an aisle of your local supermarket and find a Birkin bag nestled between the milk and eggs, you’d probably be confused. How did it get there? Whose slender arm did it fall from as they reached for the Oatly? Will the fridge’s icy climes affect its delicate patina? If, upon closer inspection, you noticed a stickered barcode and a security tag hanging off it, well that might just send you into shock. A Birkin?? At the supermarket??? How could this be!

So how did all these luxury brands end up on the Walmart e-store? One theory, put forward by the editor Caroline Issa on Twitter, was that the glut of new product was due to the collapse of the luxury retailer Matches. According to Issa, after going into administration in March this year, Matches sold a lot of its stock to a third party, who then sold it on to Walmart, which is why we now see an influx of Hermès, Jacquemus and Dries Van Noten. Though this is only an online rumour, it would make sense that Matches would need to make some quick cash by selling off their stock: the defunct company reportedly owes designer brands upwards of £100 million.

But while it is quite baffling to see a 30k handbag below the cerulean banner of Walmart’s online store, finding luxury brands on its site is nothing new. All of these items are sold through third party storefronts on Walmart Marketplace – think Amazon’s marketplace, where anyone can sell anything – and not by those actual brands. Walmart’s online marketplace was founded back in 2009 and is fully integrated within the normal Walmart site, so that’s why it looks like you can buy your eggs and milk alongside fresh-off-the-runway couture.

The newest influx of designer products seems to be part of some sort of fashion long game from Walmart. Its marketplace was given an overhaul in 2016 to compete with places like Amazon and eBay, and even as recently as March this year Bloomberg UK reported it was attempting to lure wealthier shoppers with a more substantial fashion offering. “This is about modernising the brand and making it seem chic and cool,” Oliver Chen, an analyst at TD Cowen, told the website. I can almost see it now: LN-CC, DSM, Fantastic Toiles… Walmart.