Worst Company In America "Elite 8": Wal-Mart VS American Airlines

Here’s your third “Elite 8” match-up: #3 Wal-Mart VS #43 American Airlines

Here’s what some of you had to say about these two companies:

Wal-Mart:
“They undercut the bottom lines of companies so much that the company barely gets a profit – but if the company says “No, I can’t afford to switch all my manufacturing to 5 gallon jars of pickles”, Walmart says they won’t carry any of that brand’s products.

Period.”

“Wal-Mart: Squeeze your vendors, not your customers. “

“The truth was that Wal-Mart paid Logitech to use Logitech’s Chinese production centers so that they could make items which looked very similar to the normal product lines, but which had components in them which were solely the responsibility of Wal-Mart (ie, not purchased, inventoried, or in any way guaranteed or the responsibility of Logitech). Wal-Mart just paid a certain amount per unit to put their crap into a shiny Logitech box and have the Logitech logo shown on it.”

“I bought a GE Skillet from them a while back and it was a piece of shit. To find out why, I checked the box and it said something like “made for Wal-Mart” and ever since then, when I do venture into Wal-Mart I always check for that label.”

American Airlines:
“AA just released a statement saying they will be charging $15 per checked bag and cutting flights.”

“I just heard on the radio on the way to work that American Airlines is now going to staff people at TSA checkpoints to police people bringing too many carry-on bags.”

“I voted for AA, because at least Microsoft pretends to care about where I want to go today!”

“They stranded me in an airport for 10 hours with no food vouchers, no hotel offer, and no way to escape (I didn’t have a license or old enough to rent a car).”

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america.

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