Comments on: Wal-mart Secret Specials: How Low Can They Go?

By: sarah

sarah — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:53:24 +0000

I went to Walmart on Nov. 7 for the first secret sale item which was an HP 14.6 inch screen laptop. I got there at 8:30am and got my laptop for $298.00. They still had like 12 left. They told me they had like 30 total. I dont know how good a computer it will be, but it was too good a deal to pass up. It will be a Christmas gift for my son. I like the “secret sale”.

By: susie burzanko

susie burzanko — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 18:56:00 +0000

Thanks for exposing some of these tricks that companies are trying to use…hoping that no one will notice. I had no idea, and will use your website to keep informed. Great public service!

By: david

david — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 01:46:47 +0000

Is everyone just stupid…..do you not know what a minimum means. It means that every wal-mart has at least one laptop. If it said a maximum of one laptop per store then you should rush because that woulud emply that there was only one or less per store

By: Dave Ford

Dave Ford — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:16:42 +0000

I work in the electronics dept of WalMart. We had 50 of the laptops and they lasted 3 days before the last one was sold. On the other hand tho..our backroom was such a mess that a number of items advertised have yet to make it to the floor! As for the quality(?) of a laptop that is only $388, well, an old saying goes “You get what you pay for.” Whether it was the Toshiba or the HP, ok for general home surfing and emailing..but if you needed it for school or business it was not suitable.

By: RS

RS — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:26:41 +0000

@Jimmy
Although you are technically right, when you start deceiving people with your advertising tactics, you lose credibility. For a small store, if you are always “sold out” of the unbeatable prices that drew people into your store (even if you actually offered one), people will stop showing up because they just don’t trust that you’ll give them what they want.

In the case of Walmart, they offer enough other low-priced items to offset this, so their tactic is merely to draw “suckers” away from their competition, knowing that most people will eventually find something worthwhile anyway.

Either way, these tactics have led me to avoid Walmart during any kind of people buying time, which includes pretty much any weekday afternoon. To mean, dealing with the hassles of the lines and parking and angry people is enough to make me look elsewhere for a tiny percentage more (often less than $1 for lots of items I’m seeking.)

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Can we at least gently demand that they put how many items are likely to be available at that price, or at least “quantities very limited”?