Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Uncover More Retail Antiquities

They are always searching. The Raiders of the Lost Walmart never stop their quest for the most ridiculous, most outdated items still on the shelves of their local Walmart stores. Here are their latest discoveries: a game that you can download for free, and a decade-old digital camera.

apb

“Walmart is still selling games you can’t play for full price,” notes Derek. APB’s servers were taken offline, and now it’s free to download and play. But not, as far as I could tell, compatible with this boxed version.

mavica-thumb-600x450-57347

Will noticed this Sony Mavica on the clearance shelf at an upstate New York Walmart. It wouldn’t have been out of place ten years ago, but not today, and certainly not for a “clearance” price of $269.

I looked it up and that model (FD200) and it was originally introduced in 2002. This has to be the oldest thing in the store, and it was remodeled into a Super Walmart at like 5 years ago. I would guess this was a return that got lost in the store based on the condition of the package.

I loved the Mavica. I would totally still use one if I owned any computers that still had a floppy disk drive.

Finally, reader The Comedian found some outdated non-electronic product on clearance. A product that has an even shorter shelf life than digital cameras, as it turns out.

I was looking for some Diesel Exhaust Fluid for my car and spotted some gallons of it lingering on a clearance shelf at the back of the automotive section of my local Walmart in [redacted], Connecticut.

Hoping it might have been finally been discounted for clearance from the ridiculously high marked price of $15.99 per gallon, I scanned it at one of the “Find a Price” scanners in the store. For reference, last time I bought DEF at NAPA I paid under $8.00 a gallon for it.

bluedef1

bluedef3

bluedef2

Turns out the scanned price matched the marked price of $15.99, more than twice what it should be, despite being on the clearance shelf. Oh, FWIW, they’ve been on the clearance shelf for over half a year now. Did I mention that DEF only has a shelf life of 12-24 months.

For comparison I found a 2.5 gallon container of DEF at the same Walmart for just $11.37 ($4.55 per gallon!) that appeared to be in a container that hadn’t sat around aging out on the shelf for a year.

Maybe you can work some of the Walmart contact magic and help clear this aged (possibly ineffective) DEF from store shelves.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.