Good afternoon, class. It’s time for yet another lesson in “Do The Math Before You Pick Which Package Of A Product To Buy.” Today’s example comes from Consumerist reader Brian, who spotted various price options at his local Walmart for microwave popcorn. Three identical products in three different options, but which one to buy? [More]
Walmart Features Pick A Price, Any Price For Pop Up Bowl Microwave Popcorn
By February 22, 2013
It Is Our Journalistic Duty To Ask You If People Are Seriously Peeing On Stolen Pregnancy Tests Right There In The Aisle
By February 21, 2013
We came across something today on the ever-surprising Internets that has our brains doing whatnows and ohnotheydidnts all over the place, and we need your help to get a handle on the situation. Specifically — ahem — are people really stealing pregnancy tests and peeing on them right there in the aisle? [More]
You Think You Can Just Scoot Into Walmart & Set It On Fire While You Shoplift? Nope.
By February 20, 2013
Apologies for the headline because of course you are physically able to ride a motorized shopping cart into Walmart and set stuff on fire as a diversion tactic while boosting items, but you should not do so and will likely be caught. Just like the guy who is accused of trying that same stunt in Ohio. [More]
Walmart Worker Treated Store Shelves As Personal Snack Pantry For 4 Years
By February 20, 2013
Most workers like to take a break in the middle of their work day and have a meal or a snack. That’s a nice idea, as long as it’s your break time. You’re not supposed to help yourself to snack food from the shelves of the retailer where you work, but a woman who has worked in maintenance at Walmart stores in two different states has been caught after a seven-year on-the-job crime spree. Now she’s been charged with a felony after getting caught on camera munching Oreos. [More]
How I Turned A Walmart Gift Card Into An EA Game Preorder By Way Of A Kitchen Appliance
By February 20, 2013
Reader O. wanted to preorder a new game from 2012 Worst Company in America champ EA, and he wanted to use some money that he had on a Walmart gift card. Fair enough. What he did have was a $50 Walmart gift card and some cash. Walmart theoretically carries EA gift cards, so he should have been able to visit his nearest Wally World, pick up a card, take it home, and pre-order a delicious Crysis 3 download. Indeed, he was able to do that, but only after he took a pocketful of cash across the street and bought his desired EA gift card at GameStop. You can use a Walmart gift card for anything that the store sells…except prepaid debit cards. [More]
This Antifreeze Is Defective: It Froze Solid
By February 6, 2013
We don’t have any car experts on staff here at Consumerist, but even we know that antifreeze is generally supposed to stay liquid. Yet that’s not what happened to the gallon bottle that C. bought at Walmart, intending to top off his kids’ car. He stored it outside and found the bottle frozen solid when it came time to use it. That would make things difficult. [More]
Walmart Will Kick-Start Your Fitness Regime With Chocolate Bark And Crisco
By February 4, 2013
Kelly noticed a display at Walmart with signs that said “Get back on track,” which she assumed meant health foods and workout equipment. What else could it be? (Well, maybe NASCAR merchandise.) Instead of protein supplements and Shake Weights, she found cake mixes and cans of Crisco. Pretty much the opposite of what she was expecting. [More]
Someone Needs To Talk To Kellogg’s About The Meaning Of ‘Value’
By January 28, 2013
“Walmart will charge me 50 cents more for the luxury of getting 10 bars instead of just 5!” Mike write when he submitted this photo using the Consumerist Tipster App. He’s being unfair: who doesn’t want to pay extra for the privilege of dragging a bigger box home from the Super Walmart? [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Will Take 10 Minutes To Download This Post Over A 56K Modem
By January 25, 2013
Among the readers and tipsters of Consumerist are a brave band of explorers on a sacred mission to advance human knowledge. Their quest: to find really, really old crap sitting on the clearance rack at Walmart, and take photos so we can laugh at it. They are the Raiders of the Lost Walmart. Here are their latest finds from the field. [More]
Walmart Warns Suppliers They Better Abide By Stricter Rules Or Get Dropped
By January 22, 2013
After a fire at a Bangladesh factory that supplied clothing to Walmart and other stores killed 112 workers in November, Walmart has announced that it is taking its suppliers around the globe to task when it comes to subcontracting their work. In other words, if Walmart doesn’t approve of the factories suppliers use, it’ll drop those companies lickety-split. [More]
Walmart Sells Fake Display Model iPad, Won’t Exchange It For Real One
By January 14, 2013
A New Jersey woman took the two large Walmart gift cards that her husband had received as a holiday bonus and bought an iPad with them. Only the iPad that she she brought home from the store wasn’t the same one described on the box. The memory capacity and serial numbers didn’t match. She also couldn’t get the tablet to charge, or even to plug in to the cable. The item in her box, you see, was a plastic fake display-model iPad. [More]
Straight Talk Wireless Introduces iPhone 5 With $45 Unlimited Everything: What’s The Catch?
By January 11, 2013
Starting today, you can go to your neighborhood Walmart store and pick up an iPhone 5 from Walmart’s own house-brand carrier, StraightTalk Wireless. With it you’ll get a $45 unlimited talk/text/data plan. Instead of a phone subsidy, you’ll be paying the unlocked-phone price for your handset: $649 for a 16GB iPhone 5. That’s the same price you’ll pay for an unlocked phone straight from Apple, but Walmart offers something extra: you can finance your purchase and pay $25 per month with no interest…for 26 months. [More]
If Your Resolution Is To Finally Figure Out That Whole Hygiene Thing, Walmart Has You Covered
By January 8, 2013
It’s a new year, and you know what that means: We all make promises to ourselves that we probably won’t keep (although I swear I’m going to start my own organic dairy farm someday and have a bestselling cheese brand) or will at least give up on early in February. But hey, you, the one without a toothbrush who hasn’t figured out soap yet — Walmart is here for you. [More]
How To Get Good Service At A Chronically Understaffed Walmart
By January 2, 2013
What should you know when you place an online order that you plan to pick up at your local Walmart store? An insider––an ordinary store employee in an ordinary Walmart––reached out to us to explain to customers what you should know before you click “Site-to-Store,” and other pitfalls. Walmart may employ millions of Americans, but it still tries to run stores with the smallest crew that it get by with.
Let’s hand the floor over to the employee, who we’ll call “Samantha”: [More]
Repair Company Can’t Fix TV Without Parts, Warranty Won’t Replace Repairable TV
By December 28, 2012
How long could your household go without a television? It depends on how many people are there, what you watch, what time of year it is, how the weather is, and whether or not it’s Christmas break and your kids are home from school. That’s the case for Roman’s family, cord cutters who are cut off from television content. Last Black Friday, Roman got a Vizio 3D smart TV from Walmart. Just under a year later, the set doesn’t work. That’s okay, though: he bought the extended warranty. The repair service set up an appointment, then just didn’t show after Roman took a day off work and waited around for them. Why? They didn’t have the part he needed in stock. [More]
Walmart Sold Us A High Chair Covered With Food And Mold As New
By December 28, 2012
Part of the delight of Christmas morning is opening up fresh, shiny, untouched gifts. Our new stuff gets wrapped in colorful paper outside of the boxes and layers of protective plastic by the Asian teenagers who made them for us. Jan’s great-grandson is still a baby, so he probably didn’t care one way or the other about the condition of his gifts, but the grown-up family members did. The high chair they bought him had been used. Used a lot. And it was covered with food and mold. It should be their baby who has the privilege of throwing spaghetti on his high chair, not someone else’s. [More]
How Walmart’s Mistake Made Me Look Like A Crappy Uncle
By December 26, 2012
Anthony no longer trusts Walmart. They guaranteed delivery of his gift for his nephew by December 24th. The problem with this guarantee is that if the store fails and breaks its promise, the solution is not that they travel back in time, make everything right, and make sure that you have a gift in hand for your nephew. They just give you a refund or something. [More]
Woman Cited For Shopping Cart Rage Because There Are Plenty Of Carts To Go Around
By December 14, 2012
The nice thing about the supermarket is that they have these large, rolling vessels available to use for free, so shoppers can fill them with items and not have to carry all those groceries. They’re called shopping carts, and unless there’s some special occasion where a store is flooded with shoppers, there are usually quite a few of them available. So punching a fellow shopper in the face over shopping cart rage? That doesn’t need to happen. [More]
