Not every apple is a shiny, smooth round orb of deliciousness. Some come with little dents or a few off-colored spots, but that doesn’t make those pieces of produce any less delicious. Still, you might be hard pressed to find those imperfect apples, pears, tomatoes, peppers, and other fruits and vegetables at your local store. That’s about to change for some Walmart customers, though. [More]
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Walmart Encourages Suppliers To Remove 8 Controversial Chemicals From Products
By 7.20.16
Walmart has a huge amount of power over which products end up on the market. The mega-retailer is now encouraging suppliers to remove eight chemicals from their products. The substances aren’t banned, exactly, but suppliers will have to discolose their presence on any products containing them starting in two years. The list consisted of substances which may be harmful to people, to the environment, or to both. [More]
Why Does Walmart Think That Its Payment App Will Be Such A Hit?
By 7.13.16 — Updated: 11.3.16
Walmart hasn’t signed on to accept any mobile payment platforms, including dominant Android Pay and Apple Pay. It was one of the merchants behind the now-dormant CurrentC payment app, and launched its own barcode-based payment service tied to customer accounts on the retailer’s website. While the company claims that their goal is to provide a unified Walmart experience, why isn’t it also willing to let customers use the mobile payment app that they already have? [More]
Customers Literally Rally Around Displaced Walmart Greeter With Cerebral Palsy
By 7.11.16
A few months ago, Walmart announced that it was bringing the greeter position back to all stores, and that the job in more busy locations would change. People standing at the doors would have more responsibilities in addition to greeting customers and checking receipts, and their new title would be “customer host,” with yellow vests to make them easier to spot. At least one longtime greeter reports that the change means that he lost his job. [More]
Walmart Responds To Amazon Prime Day By Offering Free Shipping For All Orders
By 7.11.16
On the eve of Amazon’s second annual Prime Day sale, Walmart is once again trying to play spoiler. The nation’s largest retailer announced this morning that it is dropping shipping fees for all online orders this week.
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Walmart Taking Its Proprietary Mobile Payment App Nationwide
By 7.6.16
Two months ago, Walmart took its mobile payment app, the logically named Walmart Pay, live in 590 stores in its home state of Arkansas and in the neighboring state of Texas. The test apparently went well: the retailer is bringing the app to customers in the rest of the country as of today. [More]
Visa Sues Walmart In Response To Lawsuit Over Security Of Debit Card Authorizations
By 6.29.16
Last month, Walmart sued Visa, accusing the card network of pushing the retailer to use a less-secure method of verifying debit card transactions. Now Visa is firing back with a lawsuit of its own, claiming the nation’s largest retailer is violating its contract by setting up payment terminals so that they can only accept the more secure form of validation. [More]
Perhaps You Would Like To Try A 30-Day Trial Of Walmart’s 2-Day Shipping Service
By 6.29.16
Walmart’s ShippingPass service has always been intended as a competitor for Amazon’s Prime membership, and now the program has formally launched to the public. After recently cutting down its shipping window to two days to match its competitor, Walmart is celebrating the public opening by matching Amazon in another way: by offering a 30-day free trial, perhaps hoping that shoppers will come to depend on the service and never want to leave. [More]
Lawmakers Want Answers On Walmart Prepaid Card Glitch That Left Thousands Without Funds
By 6.28.16
When a prepared credit card system goes down, millions of unbanked American lose their ability to access funds needed to pay bills, buy groceries, and make other purchases. This scenario was illustrated last month when customers using Walmart-branded Green Dot prepaid debit cards said they had been stranded without their funds for several days, and in some cases weeks. Now, a pair of lawmakers wants to understand the debacle better and work to prevent something similar from happening again. [More]
Walmart Still Reportedly Misusing “Made In U.S.A” Labels
By 6.28.16
The Federal Trade Commission may have dropped its probe into Walmart’s misuse of “Made in U.S.A.” labeling last fall, but an advertising watchdog group says a more recent analysis of the retailer’s website found it continues to label products with the designation even though they were manufactured in other countries. [More]
Kroger Accuses Visa Of Using Threats To Force Supermarkets To Accept Less Secure Debit Cards
By 6.28.16
Another week, another large retailer accusing Visa of forcing stores to accept debit cards in a way that it is not as secure as it could be — and which will cost the retailer more money to process. [More]
Walmart Trying To Cut Back On Calls To Cops By Offering Small-Time Shoplifters Chance To Reform
By 6.24.16
Police who work near any large retail store are probably all too familiar with responding to calls for shoppers caught trying to make off with a pack of socks or a pilfered Pepsi. A test program at Walmart aims to reduce these nuisance calls by giving small-time shoplifters a second chance. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Actually Mark Something Down, Take It Too Far
By 6.21.16
Regular readers are probably familiar with the Raiders of the Lost Walmart, where we feature obsolete yet comically overpriced items available on store shelves. Our readers scour the nation’s clearance sections to find these items, which turn out to mostly be at Walmart because of the retailer’s size, vast inventory, and meager budget for discounts. [More]
Walmart Urging Customers To “Cut The Cable” With Promo
By 6.13.16
While cutting the cable cord might seem like a way to stick it to multibillion-dollar companies like Comcast and DirecTV, cord-cutting is also a potential goldmine for retailers eager to sell you the tools you’ll need to snip that traditional pay-TV umbilical. That’s why Walmart is pushing this new generation of products with a “Cut the Cable” promotion.
Walmart Partners With Uber, Lyft For Online Grocery Delivery
By 6.3.16
Shoppers in more than a dozen cities can already order groceries from Walmart.com then later have someone bring their order out to their waiting car. Soon, these folks won’t even have to leave home. [More]
Walmart Testing Drones To Help Manage Warehouse Inventory
By 6.2.16
As predicted, so it has come to pass: after asking the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to start testing drones for things like managing warehouse inventories, Walmart says it’s started that process, and could have the little guys up in the air and on the job in the next six to nine months. [More]
Report: Only Some Progress In Making Sure Clothing Factory Workers Are Treated Like Humans
By 6.1.16
Three years ago, after a building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,100 of the people who were making our clothes, major global retailers pledged to make sure that the people who work for their suppliers are paid a living wage and have safe workplaces. A new report shows that while some things have improved at factories that supply retailers like Walmart and H&M, there are still serious labor and safety issues in these companies’ supply chains. [More]
Card Skimmers Found On Walmart Self-Checkout Terminals In Two States
By 5.26.16
In just the last few weeks, card skimmers — devices that illegally scan customers’ credit cards –have been found at two different Walmart stores. The skimmers in these cases were so convincing that they may have been in place for weeks for being discovered. [More]
