Walmart sux

[Ixix]

so my sister gets a flyer in the mail early this week from walmart. They advertised a "friday only" sale after thanxgiving. In it, they featured an HP notebook at $386. When she told me this i'm like, yeah, there's no way you'll get your hands on one unless you get to Walmart at 2:00 am and camp out.

she got to walmart at about 5 in the morning and saw about 800 pple lined up around the store....as i predicted, the laptops were sold out by the time she got to the electronics section....but only because, each walmart in the valley only got 20-15 laptops PER STORE! She said that a man complained to the manager, and his response was..."it's not my fault, i just work here"

many of you might think this is a "brilliant" advertising and marketing scheme by walmart, but i think it's plain wrong. Let's just say we're going to discount our HDTV's to $10 a pop, but only have 5 available......

This really makes me rethink ever stepping foot inside a walmart again, this kind of stunt shows no appreciation for the customer, and reminds me once again that places like walmart only care about the "almighty dollar"

screw them

 

[Tippy]

But its always limited quantity/while supplies last, I'm sure the early birds got the notebook, she should have went at 2 and not 5, maybe then she would have been lucky.

It sucks though I agree but not much you can do about it.

I'm Canadian but went to my Moms for Thanksgiving and I believe she was talking about this deal or it might have been for another computer on special, I will have to find out if she got it.

 

[Chris]

Every store always has limited supplies of every product they carry in the store and eventually they will be sold out of something. They could have had 500 of the notebooks, but eventually they'd still be sold out...unless there are semis lined up out back one after another with a continuous supply of them.

 

[kjmz]

so my sister gets a flyer in the mail early this week from walmart. They advertised a "friday only" sale after thanxgiving. In it, they featured an HP notebook at $386. When she told me this i'm like, yeah, there's no way you'll get your hands on one unless you get to Walmart at 2:00 am and camp out.

she got to walmart at about 5 in the morning and saw about 800 pple lined up around the store....as i predicted, the laptops were sold out by the time she got to the electronics section....but only because, each walmart in the valley only got 20-15 laptops PER STORE! She said that a man complained to the manager, and his response was..."it's not my fault, i just work here"

many of you might think this is a "brilliant" advertising and marketing scheme by walmart, but i think it's plain wrong. Let's just say we're going to discount our HDTV's to $10 a pop, but only have 5 available......

This really makes me rethink ever stepping foot inside a walmart again, this kind of stunt shows no appreciation for the customer, and reminds me once again that places like walmart only care about the "almighty dollar"

screw them

That's just like the XBOX's, they didn't have nearly enough for everyone. Personally I would be proud to step into a Wal-Mart because they are so smart. They didn't do anything wrong they follow all the rules. Your sister had the same chance as everyone else.

 

[Ixix]

But its always limited quantity/while supplies last, I'm sure the early birds got the notebook, she should have went at 2 and not 5, maybe then she would have been lucky.

It sucks though I agree but not much you can do about it.

I'm Canadian but went to my Moms for Thanksgiving and I believe she was talking about this deal or it might have been for another computer on special, I will have to find out if she got it.

Normally i'd agree with you, but i think it is wrong to purposely make an item almost impossible to get....

given the fact that there was 800 pple lined up at the door at 5am this morning take a ratio of 800 pple to 10 laptops....it's not like this is a special toy and the manufacturer only sent XX quantity, so that's all they have...and we are talking about a "super" walmart that is suposed to be the mega store of the valley.

they should place a statement on their ad "odds of actually getting this laptop is slim - good luck sucker!"

i bet most of the pple that bout one will turn around and sell it on ebay

i know i'll get a lot of pple disagreeing with me on this one, but stuff like this makes me detest this time of year.

 

[Chris]

they should place a statement on their ad "odds of actually getting this laptop is slim - good luck sucker!"

All "800 people" had the very same chances of getting one. It's a first come, first serve basis just like it is with anything else. Like the saying goes, "You Snooze, You Looze". The ones who were there first ended up getting them, how is that Wal-Mart's fault? If I go to the Dell store to purchase a new desktop computer and the person in front of me buys the last one they've got in the model I wanted...then should I be mad at the Dell store because they don't have any left in that model? :blink:

 

[Rom]

WalMart is my favorite store :P

 

[zaros64]

Yeah also, how did you/your sister know there was 800 people there? counted them all eh?

 

[NPQueen]

They weren't giving rain checks out? Most stores will give out rain checks when they sell out of a sales item. Maybe Walmart doesn't practice this. I have never tried to get one there.

 

[brewmonkey]

You do realize that it is not some marketing ploy as you think it is. It is the manufacturers inability to supply every store with more then that many. Wal Mart has 5700 stores in the world, the majority of them here in the US and Canada. Even if only 4000 were in this area that would mean HP would have had to deliver close to 80,000 of them for this one day.

Top that off with they have a sale like this every year and every year the supply runs out 5 minutes after they open. Why would this year be any different?

As for advertising, every single Wal Mart ad I saw said Supplies Limited by location. Not sure about where you are at but here you can actually call the store in advance and they will tell you about how many they expect to have on hand.

However Wal Mart was NOT the only company selling laptops for dirt cheap today, Best Buy has one going for $375 or so today only.

As for rain checks, on special sales such as Black Friday sales no store generally offers Rain Checks.

Sorry your sister did not get her laptop but this was in no way the fault of Wal-Mart.

 

[CrazyTech]

Walmart runs one heck of an operation. I should know, my father worked there and I have firsthand knowledge of how a store runs.

They do this every year and it's nothing new. They'll send out x amount of a certain item such as TV or laptop to each store to mark really low. Walmart has a habit of marking a few items lower than everyone else while keeping the other items average to overpriced. A recent study I heard about said that 6/10 items at Walmart were overpriced (priced well above competitors). If I come across the link I'll post it. The other items are either really good deals or are just average.

The idea is to create a rush to the store. They'll make money buy luring people in with a few laptops/tvs/etc. knowing that they have a very small amount of them. When people get there, they are more likely to see other gifts or things they might want so they'll buy those instead. It's not really a "smart" marketing ploy by any means.

Also, if you don't somehow think this is a sales ploy, pull out your Walmart flyer and look at the font size of the limited supply notices.

Walmart is all about the dollar nowadays I'm afraid. I refuse to shop there anymore because of the treatment of the employees.

 

[brewmonkey]

I have read similar reports on Wal Mart as well a report just yesterday that Wal Mart failed to meet federal guidlines on mispriced items. The federal standard is 2% and they were closer to 3.8%. They did not specify how much the average overage was but with 5700 stores even a few pennies here and there adds up. If they were to average an overage of $40 a day per store, which based on their volume is not unreasonable, they stand to pocket $83,220,000 a year.

Of course they are also notorious for underpaying their staff. I believe the average hourly rate for a Wally World employee was $7.92 an hour. Yet one of their own internal memos shows that adding .005 cents to each item would mean they would be able to raise that pay by $1 an hour.

Personally I loathe Wal Mart and the only reason I go to their store is that I live quite far from any other similar stores. I prefer to do my shopping online though as I tend to find much better deals that way and do not have to deal with the crowds. The last 3 years 100% of my Christmas shopping was done online.

 

[urbanhostonline]

I guess it could be worse... Like by me we had the same deal going on and people were lined up. Although the catch is, if you showed up before 4 wal mart gave vouchers to people who knew what they were looking for and so they were guranteed the product. As for the people who showed up at 5 or so, they were pretty much screwed. Where does it say in the ad that they give vouchers to the people that arrive early? Just not right...

 

[Ixix]

she's gonna get a dell, they are having a great deal w/mail in rebate on a same type of computer....with no funny business....

normally i really wouldn't care about stuff like this, i really don't go to walmart that often, and i don't follow hype like this. I've worked in retail before and i know the value of gaining customer's trust...and treating them right. I knew this was a ploy to get pple in, i just didn't realize how bad it was. We're talking about a "super" walmart here, not "Tim and Jim's" mom 'n pop computer shop. We have about 4 in the city...each store were sent 15 computers...and the city was mass mailed circular ads advertising these laptops.... you're sending a million pple an add for a particular item...and at most you've provided 80 in stock spread in 4 super centers.... Super walmarts got a bazillion of everything... i mean, the kind of store that in the event of a nuclear holocaust, you could survive in a super walmart for a decade. There's no way they 'accidentally ran out' of the computers... :yell:


After today...i really doubt i'm going back to a walmart for many reasons (not that i really shopped there much to begin with)....first, there are other stores that are just as good, maybe better, costco, fry's electronics for one.... there's a costco near where i live that will accept returns even 2-3 years after you buy an item, with or without a recipt. customer service and appreciation is a big plus in my book.

lol, i heard some poor guy was tackled for cutting in line in florida over one of these lap tops....go figure


jmo

Sorry your sister did not get her laptop but this was in no way the fault of Wal-Mart.

again, that's not the biggy,

Walmart used to be a place for the lower incomed families to do their shopping....not anymore mind you... pple these days have to work extra hard for their money. Gas prices going up, utilities going up, lay offs, the hurricanes, debt, etc. I see it as companies like this taking advantage of pple's financial weakness. I mean, a lot of these pple/families really can't afford expensive items like computers. I just imagine the person #16 or 17 that waited in line since 9:00 Thanksgiving day hoping to get a laptop for him, his kids, or his family member. Pulling something like this is just cruel imo...

like i said in the earlier post, for sis, it's no biggie, she's found something else...i personally hate taking advantage of pple, and i don't like scamming pple to make a dollar. It's not the matter of wether or not she got a computer...

She was telling me horror stories of how pple were pushing each other, running down the isles like the world was comming to an end..it was crazy!

 

[adam_uk]

That's just like the XBOX's, they didn't have nearly enough for everyone. Personally I would be proud to step into a Wal-Mart because they are so smart. They didn't do anything wrong they follow all the rules. Your sister had the same chance as everyone else.

thats not a walmart issue thats a microsoft issue, microsft havent been able to produce a enough boxes for a world wide launch.

 

[brewmonkey]

Walmart used to be a place for the lower incomed families to do their shopping....not anymore mind you... pple these days have to work extra hard for their money. Gas prices going up, utilities going up, lay offs, the hurricanes, debt, etc. I see it as companies like this taking advantage of pple's financial weakness. I mean, a lot of these pple/families really can't afford expensive items like computers. I just imagine the person #16 or 17 that waited in line since 9:00 Thanksgiving day hoping to get a laptop for him, his kids, or his family member. Pulling something like this is just cruel imo...

like i said in the earlier post, for sis, it's no biggie, she's found something else...i personally hate taking advantage of pple, and i don't like scamming pple to make a dollar. It's not the matter of wether or not she got a computer...

She was telling me horror stories of how pple were pushing each other, running down the isles like the world was comming to an end..it was crazy!

Wal-Mart is in business to make money and people are free to choose wherever they want to shop. It is not taking advantage of anyone to do business the way they do and if it was, well I am sure all 50 states AG's would be lining up at the court house to file lawsuits for illegal business practice.

 

[vip-ip]

Walmart is the #1 competition for Target, trying to beat all of their prices by pennies (even pre-paid phone cards at $29.99 at Target are $29.83 or something like that in Walmart!). IMO, Target is the place to go for rain checks; I saved 30 bucks on my basketball hoop like that =D Got a better one for the same price as a model worse than the one I got. And they're pretty sleek with substitutes, ex. if Dell laptop for $1200 is not in stock, you can substitute it with HP laptop for $1250 or around that with the same discount.

 

[brewmonkey]

Target is also big on supporting their local neighborhoods. Their employees do a lot of volunteer work in the areas of the stores, especially with elderly and disabled folks. I prefer Target myself but the nearest one if 30 minutes away and I depend on others for transportation as I can no longer drive. That means I am stuck with Wally World or online.

 

[vip-ip]

Target is also big on supporting their local neighborhoods. Their employees do a lot of volunteer work in the areas of the stores, especially with elderly and disabled folks. I prefer Target myself but the nearest one if 30 minutes away and I depend on others for transportation as I can no longer drive. That means I am stuck with Wally World or online.

Target's main goal is to keep customers satisfied... quick checkout, helpful team members, etc. Walmart is the exact opposite - their position is that "Our prices are SOOO low and our assortment is SOOO big, people stand in giant lines to buy our stuff!" - notice, on the checkout in Target, you'll be out of the store in under 30 seconds. Walmart's cashiers, I bet, are trained to do everything as slow as possible!!! Last time took me 10 min to check out 2 DVD's from the $5.50 bin.... OMG

 

[brewmonkey]

I agree that Wal Mart's customer service is some of the worst. My favorite is when their employees are standing around doing nothing while you are needing some assistance or even better, their standing in your way while you try to navigate those tiny little aisles.

Their lack of customer support is a big reason my wife and I stopped using Sam's and started going to COSTCO.

The big thing for me is being disabled. Getting through crowded places is tough enough so I try to avoid going to stores if I can or I shop online. I have no problem paying a bit more for what I buy, although that is rarely the case. I figure the amount of time I would have spent having to drive to and from, the aggravation of dealing with inept employees and so on all adds up.

However for clothes especially stores like Old Navy and Gap have much better sales through their online outlets and if you buy generally more then $75 they ship for free. Go to their site and select the gender/age range and then on the next page generally scroll to the bottom and you will see the "sale" link. You can also make any returns of items purchased online at your local stores. You can't beat that with a stick IMHO.

However, the $5.50 bin at Wal Mart is probably the one thing I do love at Wal Mart. I have found some great classics in that bin.