• Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I hadn’t been inside a walmart in like 10 years. And I was at the point where I was like “Wait…why don’t I shop here anymore?” Then I stepped inside and it was like “Oh right…”

      • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        Seriously. If they had two brain cells to rub together, they could actually do really well by distinguishing themselves from Amazon in online retail. Amazon’s infestation with fake items not actually sold by legitimate brands is a huge strategic vulnerability for them. Walmart could stick to legitimate products actually carried and sold by Walmart, and suddenly they would gain a big advantage in online retail. And Walmart is big enough to actually go toe-to-toe with Amazon.

        • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Not only that, but they’d also be one of the only retailers that actually carry items IN THEIR SHOPS!!!

          I recently bought a 4TB SSD 2.5" for my PC. Take a guess at how I bought that drive. Just mentally lock in a guess at how my purchase happened. Have you tsken your guess? Ok, cool. You’re wrong. I don’t even need to know your answer before I know that you are incorrect.

          First I tried Best Buy. I wanted to just go to a store in person, buy a drive, and be back home in about an hour. Best Buy does not sell the WD Blue 4TB in store. You can ship it to store, but it’s not just already there. Same with Target. Same with Walmart.

          So I figured “ok, I need to buy this on Amazon.” Amazon was filled with so many sketchy listings. I know people sell fake drives especially when you get up to the shit in high capacity.

          So I tried to find listings where Western Digital was the seller. I figured that’s my best bet. Couldn’t find them. Everytime I found them, I’d click their product, and in checkout it would say some shit like “Sold and shipped by S.A. Industries”, or some equally unheard of company.

          I couldn’t even FIND anyone claiming to be the official Best Buy Amazon store.

          So I thought “Maybe I can find the Western Digital store on eBay?”

          I could not. I did however find the Best Buy official ebay store selling it with free shipping at MSRP.

          Now I COULD have gone through BestBuy.com, or Target.com, but they’d have charged me shipping. In the Walmart and Amazon pages I felt overwhelmed with the barrage of fake listings. On ebay, pretty much the same until I found an official ebay seller for a legit brick and morter chain, selling merchandise that should be inside their store, but isn’t.

          I still need to buy some smaller SSD’s, and I’m already exausted just THINKING about it. I’d gladly walk into a legit trusted store, and buy at MSRP from trusted brands if I could.

          I don’t know why these massive size stores want to be massively empty. Best buy got rid of physical media a year ago, and now their isles are like 19 feet wide and empty. Are they expecting an elephant parade? They used to have a room specifically to experience projectors, and home theater. Now that room is just closed and locked.

          If Walmart just ACTUALLY sold goods, I might shop there again. I wish I lived closer to Microcenter.

          • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            I blame MBA brain rot. The people that run these companies are all from the same handful of business schools and consultancies, and they all lazily copy each other’s homework. They’re all just trying to copy Amazon. They are utterly incapable of original thought.