How can Walmart get away with this Robbery?

[sgtDiggle]

https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/2020-New-Xbox-Series-X-1TB-SSD-Console-Bundle-with-Watch-Dogs-Legion/PRD350MXTAYF3MX

 

Xbox Series X "Bundle" with Watch Dogs. $1600.00 and in stock... yet you cant buy the actual console for retail...

[Acid Panda]

if people buy it then they will sell it at that price. its a who blinks first game.

 

[Levent]

Its not Walmart selling it, its from a third party.

[Middcore]

1. It's a third party seller, not Walmart themselves. Walmart's site is a storefront for all sorts of other retailers, same as Amazon or Newegg. 

2. Retailers can list merchandise for whatever price they like. If someone wants to pay it, that's up to them. If the price is so high nobody wants to buy, it hurts nobody but the retailer. 

[Bombastinator]

Regarding Walmart B&M stores: Walmart doesn’t actually sell anything itself.  Walmarts are sort of just showrooms that have tills. Everything in the store is placed by a much smaller manufacturing company who has to be able to fill a minimum number of orders which is frequently quite large. Though it may not actually sell that many items.  So not wholesaler+ but wholesaler- and the - can be large enough to kill a company.  Fulfilling such contracts destroyed a lot of businesses, which is why you see product names shifting so much and why Walmart used to be cheaper than everyone else but isn’t anymore.  A lot of companies were destroyed arranging those low prices.  Listing your product at Walmart has for some years been considered a huge gamble for smaller companies. 

[Roswell]

38 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Regarding Walmart B&M stores: Walmart doesn’t actually sell anything itself.  Walmarts are sort of just showrooms that have tills. Everything in the store is placed by a much smaller manufacturing company who has to be able to fill a minimum number of orders which is frequently quite large. Though it may not actually sell that many items.  So not wholesaler+ but wholesaler- and the - can be large enough to kill a company.  Fulfilling such contracts destroyed a lot of businesses, which is why you see product names shifting so much and why Walmart used to be cheaper than everyone else but isn’t anymore.  A lot of companies were destroyed arranging those low prices.  Listing your product at Walmart has for some years been considered a huge gamble for smaller companies. 

It depends on the specific item. Retailers usually have a mix of items purchased in bulk on their own and vendors paying for their own placement.

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, Roswell said:

It depends on the specific item. Retailers usually have a mix of items purchased in bulk on their own and vendors paying for their own placement.

True.  Many retailers do this to a certain amount. Most commonly for snack foods like bagged chips. You may see a frito lay employee stocking shelves at a local grocery for example.   It was a system developed by a wine maker in the 60’s. Ernest and Julio Gallo maybe.  Not sure. Walmart is special though.  It was at one time zero or nearly zero.  It may have raised some.  I don’t know how much if any.  My information is small manufacturer side rather than Walmart or other retailer side.  

[BuckGup]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Regarding Walmart B&M stores: Walmart doesn’t actually sell anything itself. 

That's not true Walmart has their own branding and lineup of many products.

[Donut417]

2 hours ago, sgtDiggle said:

https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/2020-New-Xbox-Series-X-1TB-SSD-Console-Bundle-with-Watch-Dogs-Legion/PRD350MXTAYF3MX

 

Xbox Series X "Bundle" with Watch Dogs. $1600.00 and in stock... yet you cant buy the actual console for retail...

First of all its not Walmart selling it, get your story straight. Walmart is like Newegg and Amazon, it allows third party sellers. Its not Amazon, Walmart or Newegg's job to police the prices that those sellers choose to charge. There is nothing grossly illegal about what this seller is doing. Price gouging laws dont apply to consumer electronics and dont apply generally unless a state of emergency is in effect. 

 

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Walmart doesn’t actually sell anything itself.

ONN is a Walmart brand. Walmart has its own stuff. 

[Heliian]

1 hour ago, Donut417 said:

Its not Amazon, Walmart or Newegg's job to police the prices that those sellers choose to charge

This is my problem with these sites, bestbuy does it too and it's a big scam.

The big retailers are just using it as a way to deny you support for products and the oversight is poor at Walmart especially.  

Walmart did it to keep up with the Joneses and it's second rate.  I don't buy from Walmart or their sketchy website, amazon is the only place I'll buy from 3ps.  Just had an interaction with Amazon about a 3ps  and they resolved my issue within an hour. 

 

 

[Donut417]

35 minutes ago, Heliian said:

it's a big scam.

It’s not a scam. These are other business that are allowed to sell on the site. Just because you don’t like the price doesn’t make it a scam. If you don’t like what they want for it then don’t buy it, pretty fucking simple. 
 

You and a lot of others need to go back to economics class and learn about supply and demand. 

[Bombastinator]

3 hours ago, BuckGup said:

That's not true Walmart has their own branding and lineup of many products.

But are they sold by Walmart?  Did Walmart actually buy them wholesale?  Or are they simply letting/forcing the creator of the product use the name?  At issue is the liability  of inventory and unsold goods.  If Walmart has their own brand and is holding inventory at their cost that’s one thing. It didn’t used to be how it was done with any of the inventory at the store though.  The liability was on the manufacturer not Walmart if something didn’t sell.  You remember those “lowering prices” with the jumping yellow dot? That glass shattering noise was the sound of a manufacturer cum vendor going out of business and getting what they could from their inventory.  I’ve talked to a couple of really small manufacturers about Walmart and they all say there is opportunity but it’s dangerous as hell.  Selling stuff at Walmart is really easy.  They all had offers.  Coming out alive though, that was the hard part.

[Donut417]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

But are they sold by Walmart?  

Like I said, ONN is a Walmart in store brand. If you go to the company website Walmart is specifically mentioned. ONN does TV's and other electronics. Plus I think Walmart also has a line of computers as well. 

 

Also what the OP is crying about are the 3rd party sellers on Walmart.com. Because most people dont take the time to see who's actually selling the stuff. Its the same on Amazon and Newegg. 

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, Donut417 said:

Like I said, ONN is a Walmart in store brand. If you go to the company website Walmart is specifically mentioned. ONN does TV's and other electronics. Plus I think Walmart also has a line of computers as well. 

 

Also what the OP is crying about are the 3rd party sellers on Walmart.com. Because most people dont take the time to see who's actually selling the stuff. Its the same on Amazon and Newegg. 

Sure it’s a Walmart store brand, but a brand is just a brand.  A packaging logo.  The question is if Walmart is buying wholesale or not.  You can do the exact same thing with a store brand as it’s just packaging. You don’t HAVE to, but you can. The fact that it’s a store brand means nothing except that if they make a good product they don’t get brand recognition from it, Walmart does.

[Heliian]

3 hours ago, Donut417 said:

It’s not a scam. These are other business that are allowed to sell on the site. Just because you don’t like the price doesn’t make it a scam. If you don’t like what they want for it then don’t buy it, pretty fucking simple. 
 

You and a lot of others need to go back to economics class and learn about supply and demand. 

Holy fuck, calm the fuck down. 

 

I understand it enough that I don't shop at that garbage store, in person or online. Why the hell would you get your back up about that.  The product itself is irrelevant. 

 

 

[Donut417]

1 minute ago, Heliian said:

Holy fuck, calm the fuck down. 

 

I understand it enough that I don't shop at that garbage store, in person or online. Why the hell would you get your back up about that.  The product itself is irrelevant. 

 

 

Because for the last year people have cried about pricing when its the market that sets the price. It doesn't mater if its a product, service or labor. The price is always set to what the market will bear. 

 

Also too many people dont READ. If the OP for instance had read the product page, they would have saw it was NOT Walmart selling the item, it was a 3rd party seller. We also know that some of these 3rd party sellers are greedy, but fuck so is Wall Street. The fact is the product is priced where it is and people need to stop crying about every little thing.  The fact is, if dumb people didnt pay those extortion level prices, then prices wouldn't have been that high. People are going to loose their minds for the fact this type of crap is going to continue thru 2021 and probably thru 2022. 

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, Donut417 said:

Because for the last year people have cried about pricing when its the market that sets the price. It doesn't mater if its a product, service or labor. The price is always set to what the market will bear. 

 

Also too many people dont READ. If the OP for instance had read the product page, they would have saw it was NOT Walmart selling the item, it was a 3rd party seller. We also know that some of these 3rd party sellers are greedy, but fuck so is Wall Street. The fact is the product is priced where it is and people need to stop crying about every little thing.  The fact is, if dumb people didnt pay those extortion level prices, then prices wouldn't have been that high. People are going to loose their minds for the fact this type of crap is going to continue thru 2021 and probably thru 2022. 

Well not always. Most of the time yes, not always 100% though.  Sellers and buyers don’t always have perfect information.  People are always looking for the exceptions.  Some people play up how rare they are some people play up how common they are. 

[HerrKaLeu]

When you buy from Walmart online you can filter by vendor. I always only buy there when Walmart is the vendor since that means I can pick it up locally for free, or don't pay shipping. And I assume if I don't like the item, I can just return it locally no questions asked like any other item bought at Walmart. 

 

I never buy from 3rd party since those seemed to add shipping, and returns likely are iffy since Walmart likely won't process them. Understandably. Walmart just provides the marketplace for them. Like a shopping mall center that rents out the stores, but you deal only with the store and not the shopping mall owner. 

 

Prices are set by supply and demand. If the seller prices too high, no one will buy and they will lower the price till someone will. If someone buys the item at the listed price, the listed price was the market price since that is what someone was willing to pay. Robbery would not be a voluntary transaction. Selling at a high price woudl be a voluntary transaction since the buyer volunteers to buy the product. And we don't talk about a life-saving medication or other item where we could argue the buyer was forced to buy or die if they didn't buy. 

[Bombastinator]

1 minute ago, HerrKaLeu said:

When you buy from Walmart online you can filter by vendor. I always only buy there when Walmart is the vendor since that means I can pick it up locally for free, or don't pay shipping. And I assume if I don't like the item, I can just return it locally no questions asked like any other item bought at Walmart. 

 

I never buy from 3rd party since those seemed to add shipping, and returns likely are iffy since Walmart likely won't process them. Understandably. Walmart just provides the marketplace for them. Like a shopping mall center that rents out the stores, but you deal only with the store and not the shopping mall owner. 

 

Prices are set by supply and demand. If the seller prices too high, no one will buy and they will lower the price till someone will. If someone buys the item at the listed price, the listed price was the market price since that is what someone was willing to pay. Robbery would not be a voluntary transaction. Selling at a high price woudl be a voluntary transaction since the buyer volunteers to buy the product. And we don't talk about a life-saving medication or other item where we could argue the buyer was forced to buy or die if they didn't buy. 

Maybe they will, maybe they won’t.  Maybe they can’t.  It’s not 100%. It’s lots quite often, but there are exceptions.  The rule isn’t quite as hard and fast as stated.  It’s the 100%s and 0%s where ambiguity likes, and the devil is in the details.  There are lots of situations where people like to say something is 0 or infinity because there are things that can be done with those numbers that can’t be done with other ones.  The danger is when something is merely really high or really low but is treated as one or the other. 

[dizmo]

5 hours ago, Heliian said:

This is my problem with these sites, bestbuy does it too and it's a big scam.

The big retailers are just using it as a way to deny you support for products and the oversight is poor at Walmart especially.  

Walmart did it to keep up with the Joneses and it's second rate.  I don't buy from Walmart or their sketchy website, amazon is the only place I'll buy from 3ps.  Just had an interaction with Amazon about a 3ps  and they resolved my issue within an hour.

What? It's not a scam at all. They're using it as additional revenue streams. Amazon operates at a different level than most companies, and it's questionable if that's even sustainable.

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

But are they sold by Walmart?  Did Walmart actually buy them wholesale?  Or are they simply letting/forcing the creator of the product use the name?  At issue is the liability  of inventory and unsold goods.  If Walmart has their own brand and is holding inventory at their cost that’s one thing. It didn’t used to be how it was done with any of the inventory at the store though.  The liability was on the manufacturer not Walmart if something didn’t sell.  You remember those “lowering prices” with the jumping yellow dot? That glass shattering noise was the sound of a manufacturer cum vendor going out of business and getting what they could from their inventory.  I’ve talked to a couple of really small manufacturers about Walmart and they all say there is opportunity but it’s dangerous as hell.  Selling stuff at Walmart is really easy.  They all had offers.  Coming out alive though, that was the hard part.

Yes. Great Value, is a Walmart brand. The stock is purchased and sold by Walmart. All of their produce is bought and sold by Walmart. There's probably many, many more examples; more than there aren't. Small companies still sell through Walmart. This is nothing new, and is done at virtually every big box store. Many succeed, some don't, if you don't do your research as a vendor when trying to go into a market, it's entirely your own fault.

2 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Sure it’s a Walmart store brand, but a brand is just a brand.  A packaging logo.  The question is if Walmart is buying wholesale or not.  You can do the exact same thing with a store brand as it’s just packaging. You don’t HAVE to, but you can. The fact that it’s a store brand means nothing except that if they make a good product they don’t get brand recognition from it, Walmart does.

Your statement here doesn't make much sense. If they've gone to an ODM and put their branding on something, they're buying wholesale, as well as ordering product to their specifications. Do they make it down to the component level? No, but very few companies do. That doesn't mean the product isn't sold by Walmart.

[Bombastinator]

47 minutes ago, dizmo said:

What? It's not a scam at all. They're using it as additional revenue streams. Amazon operates at a different level than most companies, and it's questionable if that's even sustainable.

Yes. Great Value, is a Walmart brand. The stock is purchased and sold by Walmart. All of their produce is bought and sold by Walmart. There's probably many, many more examples; more than there aren't. Small companies still sell through Walmart. This is nothing new, and is done at virtually every big box store. Many succeed, some don't, if you don't do your research as a vendor when trying to go into a market, it's entirely your own fault.

Your statement here doesn't make much sense. If they've gone to an ODM and put their branding on something, they're buying wholesale, as well as ordering product to their specifications. Do they make it down to the component level? No, but very few companies do. That doesn't mean the product isn't sold by Walmart.

So you’re saying Walmart has changed its business model.  Possible.  
 

It does make sense.  it’s not nice, but it is reasonable.  All (this thing. It has a name.  I don’t know what it is) all the time is reasonable.  And it’s what multiple people who owned small manufacturing businesses said about Walmart.  The issue is whether or not they still do this thing. It is possible they aren’t.  I haven’t seen a “falling prices” ad in a long while.  You say that they do not do it now.  OK. My information on Walmart is old.  I don’t have the inclination to go hunting for supporting or corroborating evidence.  I do point out that them simply having house brands is not actually evidence though. Going to an ODM and putting their branding on something does NOT have to be whilesale.  It is OFTEN wholesale but it doesn’t HAVE to be.  Are you saying they never did it?  This I very much doubt.  I got it from multiple sources and they all said the same thing. They did do their due dillegemce and that due diligence said that it was an opportunity but it was also quite a dangerous one. Walmart wanted manufacturers to shoulder more liability than they generally did.      Liability normally shouldered by retailers. And it was a big enough one that it in itself could crush a business if it was small enough.  It is old though. The attitude of all of these small businesses at the time was more or less”

 “not just no, but HELLNO. I will not put my stuff in Walmart even though they asked (they were all asked) I don’t want to be homeless”. It was many years ago though.

Edited August 20, 2021 by Bombastinator

[Tom09]

its a supply and demand problem. No one is forcing you to buy it, some people will though and that is what wallmart is banking on

[sgtDiggle]

This was all very enlightening. I had no idea that Walmart worked like Amazon.ca. If i had known this, i probably would have noticed the SOLD BY at the bottom.

[RejZoR]

Thing is, even if anyone was selling this stuff at MSRP in stores, scalpers would just hoard it all and try to sell it at absurd prices on second hand markets. Which makes whole thing stinking garbage.

[HerrKaLeu]

You know, Walmart also sells regular brands in the store (and online). The Walmart-brands are just in addition. Like they have 5 brand-name cereals, and maybe 2 Walmart-brands. From a point who the seller (how to do returns etc.) is, it is all the same. 

 

So Walmart COULD sell a GPU as Walmart (in store, or online) without it being a special Walmart brand. Could be a regular Asus GPU etc. In the case the OP unearthed, they just chose not to and a 3rd party seller sells it. Walmart just takes a % or some other fee from the 3rd party and may, or may not, handle the shipping and creditcard processing for them. The 3rd party seller could a a one-man show, or a 20 person firm, or could be the manufacturer..... Amazon does the same, except they don't have the physical stores (yet). 

 

I wonder if some of the commenters ever went to Walmart. They are like Target or Costco or any of the other stores that sell a mixture of food and non-food everyday items. Branded, generic, and store-brands. And no one jumps out from behind the counter with a gun and forces yo to buy a specific product.