Last Updated Jul 25, 2011 2:39 PM EDT This article is part of a package on consumers and Walmart. Read the other article, on 6 things to buy at Walmart. While Walmart has returned to its emphasis on rock-bottom prices recently, there are still some product categories where you are better off shopping elsewhere — either because you’re straying beyond Walmart’s core competency or you would be supporting the giant retailer’s bad behavior. Here are four of them. Though Walmart’s selection of name-brand electronics is not bad, the company is still focused on value-oriented products in the sub-$1,000 price range. And the sales staff tend not to be experts in the finer points of multimedia interface. So if you want to splurge on a top-of-the-line television or SLR camera — and get the accompanying level of service and accessories — you’ll want to visit a specialty electronics store. Best Buy, for example, has a customer support team (the Geek Squad) capable of explaining why you may need a television with several HDMI ports.
In 2009, Walmart slashed prices aggressively to establish itself as the low-price leader for best-selling books. The store cut the cost of popular novels by authors such as Stephen King by as much as 70 percent, sparking a price war with Amazon. The Walmart/Amazon rivalry translates into incredibly low prices for consumers on some of the most popular book titles. But Walmart’s prices come at a cost, say local business advocates. In the long-run, such deep discounts can drive independent booksellers out of business. And without these stores, consumers will have difficulty finding all but the most well-known authors, says Stacy Mitchell, senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a non-profit that advocates for local businesses. Despite Walmart’s increased focus on sustainability, the retailer has a long way to go in the furniture category. In 2007 an environmental group published a report tracing furniture from Walmart suppliers to wood illegally logged in protected Russian habitats for Siberian tigers and other wildlife.
Several months later, Walmart promised to investigate its suppliers and joined the Global Forest & Trade Network, an organization dedicated to eliminating illegal logging. Environmental activists have applauded Walmart’s promise to purge environmentally rotten wood, but Walmart could take until a self-imposed deadline of 2013 to phase out the products. Until then, consumers can’t be certain that Walmart’s wood furniture comes from well-managed forests. Beyond sourcing concerns, though, the quality of much of Walmart’s furniture just isn’t very good. “Yes, their furniture may be cheap, but if it only lasts a short time, you will spend far more money in the long run,” says Kathy Woodard, a home decorating expert who frequently appears on HGTV. Walmart is actually the largest seller of jewelry and watches in the country, with about $2.75 billion in sales in 2009, according to National Jeweler, a trade publication. But most of those sales come from lower quality, small-ticket items.
“Walmart’s whole focus is to keep prices low,” says Michelle Graff, a senior editor. “When gold is selling for $1,500 an ounce, you’re going to get what you pay for.” At Walmart, that means 10 karat gold jewelry, and salespeople that likely aren’t well-versed in the finer points of cut and clarity. Besides, asks Jennifer Heebener, a senior editor at JCK Magazine, another industry publication: “What message does it send to your partner if you buy them a ring at the same place where you get discounted toilet paper?” What to Buy at Walmart 4 Things Not to Buy at Target 4 Things to Buy at Target 6 Reasons Debit Cards Are Dangerous Dumbest Things You Do With Your Money Why Gift Cards Are Lousy Gifts 20 of the coolest places to retire in the world Find out what activities and attractions make these 20 cities and town some of the best places to retire around the world 10 products you should never buy generic Generics are a great way to save money in lots of cases, but here is a look at some clear exceptions
Cheesy Bacon Bombs with Step-by-Step Instructions Prep Time: 45 min. 1. Cube the cheese, and cut each biscuit into fourths. Place one piece of cheese inside a biscuit quarter, and roll it up nice and tight. 2. Wrap each rolled biscuit bomb in a slice of bacon, and secure it with a skewer or toothpick. 3. In a medium/large pot, heat up (to 350 degrees) about 2 inches of oil. Fry the wrapped biscuits in small batches-maybe one or two at a time. (The oil will expand so stay close.) 4. Drain them on some paper towel, and serve them warm! Tips: Switch up your cheese for variety. Or try stuffing them with a slice of jalapeño for an extra kick.In 2002 Walmart cleared its shelves of Barbie's pregnant friend, Midge. The doll, which featured a removable stomach complete with deliverable baby, was part of Mattel's "Happy Family" set that also included her husband and son. However, customers complained about seeing pregnancy enter into Barbie's universe, and Walmart pulled all of the Happy Family sets from its stores.
In 1995 a Miami-area Walmart pulled this shirt from its racks after consumer complaints. The shirt, which featured the character Margaret from Dennis the Menace, ran afoul of "the company's family values," so it went back to the stock rooms. Eventually more reasonable, non-Stone-Age heads prevailed, and the shirt made it back onto the shelves after three months in limbo. Panties that say, "Who needs credit cards..." on the front and "When you have Santa" on the rear. The undergarments started showing up in Walmart's juniors departments in December 2007 and quickly started an Internet firestorm over the perceived message of using Kris Kringle as a sugar daddy. While the same joke would be fairly harmless on, say, a t-shirt, many women felt that its placement on underwear added a sinister sexual undertone aimed at adolescent girls. In response to the public outcry, Walmart pulled the offending underthings from its shelves. Back in 2000, the U.S. had a similar debate about whether the Confederate flag should be flown over the South Carolina State House.
That battle also spilled over into Walmart's grocery aisles. At the time, 90 Southern Walmart stores were marketing a mustard-based sauce created by Maurice Bessinger, an outspoken advocate of flying the Rebel flag over the State House and owner of eight Piggie Park restaurants. During the flag debate, Bessinger replaced all American flags at his eateries with Confederate flags, a move that Walmart saw as objectionable and needlessly provocative, so the company yanked his sauces from its stores. (Don't feel too bad for Bessinger, though; it took nothing less than a 1976 Supreme Court intervention to force him to serve African Americans in his restaurants.) Last Halloween, Walmart made headlines for selling and later pulling a "Naughty Leopard" costume that oddly didn't look all that naughty (or leopard-y, for that matter). Score one for parents not ready for the sexualization of Halloween creeping into preschool. Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0 In 1999 Walmart put the brakes on selling an action figure featuring WWE hardcore wrestler Al Snow.
Snow's wrestling gimmick at the time involved walking to the ring while carrying and talking to a mannequin head. Naturally, his action figure came with the head as an accessory, but two professors at Georgia's Kennesaw State University saw the inclusion of the head as a problem. They told the press that by selling the action figure society was "normalizing violent treatment of women. We are telling little boys that this is acceptable behavior." (Please, parents: don't ever give your sons the impression that carrying and talking to part of a mannequin is acceptable.) Following the outcry, Walmart quit stocking the Al Snow action figure. If you're a frisky 17-year-old looking for the latest Maxim, Stuff, or FHM, don't head to Walmart. Back in 2003, the store banned the so-called "lad mags" due to their racy photo spreads and bawdy editorial content. It's actually not all that uncommon for Walmart to give a single issue of a magazine an ax, too. In the past, the store has refused to stock issues of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit edition and a 2001 issue of InStyle that featured an artistic nude shot of Kate Hudson.
Wikimedia Commons // Fair Use Walmart has long declined to stock any music bearing a parental advisory warning for explicit lyrical content, but the company's fastidiousness with regards to music doesn't stop there. When the store carried Nirvana's album In Utero, it changed the song title "Rape Me" to the less offensive (and less coherent) "Waif Me." Similarly, the store declined to carry Prince's 1988 album Lovesexy because of a fairly tame cover that featured a nude photo of the artist. When the comedy Superbad hit store shelves in 2007, it came with a little extra: a replica of the fake Hawaii driver's license used by the self-dubbed "McLovin'." Most movie fans would simply see this freebie as a little reminder of one of the movie's funniest scenes, but Hawaiian authorities simply felt it was a fake ID. Honolulu mayor Mufi Hannemann requested that Walmart pull the DVD from store shelves across the state, and the retailer quickly complied. Walmart's Canadian stores found themselves in a pickle in 1997.