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Free shipping if your order is over a certain amount (I think $25). And it's really not free shipping if you pay for it indirectly. In my opinion it's actually

Free shipping if your order is over a certain amount (I think $25). And it's really not free shipping if you pay for it indirectly. In my opinion it's actually worse because they use "free shipping" as a selling point, even though it's not free at all. In fact, if they add x% to most products, requiring it to be over $25 is just a way of guaranteeing that you are actually paying for shipping in full, just not as an itemized option.

loeg 9y ago
I agree it's not really free... but neither is driving to the store.
- chipperyman573 9y ago
  But walmart doesn't try to trick you into thinking that driving to the store is free.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    How is it a "trick"? You may prefer to have it itemized rather than bundled, but the total price is what matters. Using "free shipping" actually makes it less tricky to compare prices, since you know they won't slap a big shipping fee on checkout to make up for low prices.
Johnny555 9y ago
Isn't that obvious? How else would they pay for the "free shipping" if not in the profit they make on purchases?
- chipperyman573 9y ago
  The free shipping isn't from the profit they make from their products, it's from the extra cost added to all their products that are listed online. Their pre-shipping profit is greater than the profit of the items in the store. Once they spend the money to ship the items, it's roughly the same. For example, let's say a widget costs $10 in Walmart stores and will cost $1 for walmart ship with their negotiated contracts. If I go to the store, I can pay $10 and buy the widget. However, if I go online, Walmart.com will say the item costs $11 with "free shipping", or I can pick it up in store for a $1 "discount" (so now I pay $10 for a "$11" item). So even though they get all the positive PR and subconscious biases associated with free shipping, they are not paying for it at all. They even pretend like you're getting a great deal by going and picking it up yourself, even though you're just paying what you otherwise would have if you skipped walmart.com entirely.
  - Johnny555 9y ago
    The free shipping isn't from the profit they make from their products, it's from the extra cost added to all their products that are listed online What's the difference between the profit they make from the products, and money they make from extra cost added to the products? Isn't that just another way to define profit?

loeg 9y ago

I agree it's not really free... but neither is driving to the store.

chipperyman573 9y ago
But walmart doesn't try to trick you into thinking that driving to the store is free.
- icebraining 9y ago
  How is it a "trick"? You may prefer to have it itemized rather than bundled, but the total price is what matters. Using "free shipping" actually makes it less tricky to compare prices, since you know they won't slap a big shipping fee on checkout to make up for low prices.

Johnny555 9y ago

Isn't that obvious? How else would they pay for the "free shipping" if not in the profit they make on purchases?

chipperyman573 9y ago
The free shipping isn't from the profit they make from their products, it's from the extra cost added to all their products that are listed online. Their pre-shipping profit is greater than the profit of the items in the store. Once they spend the money to ship the items, it's roughly the same. For example, let's say a widget costs $10 in Walmart stores and will cost $1 for walmart ship with their negotiated contracts. If I go to the store, I can pay $10 and buy the widget. However, if I go online, Walmart.com will say the item costs $11 with "free shipping", or I can pick it up in store for a $1 "discount" (so now I pay $10 for a "$11" item). So even though they get all the positive PR and subconscious biases associated with free shipping, they are not paying for it at all. They even pretend like you're getting a great deal by going and picking it up yourself, even though you're just paying what you otherwise would have if you skipped walmart.com entirely.
- Johnny555 9y ago
  The free shipping isn't from the profit they make from their products, it's from the extra cost added to all their products that are listed online What's the difference between the profit they make from the products, and money they make from extra cost added to the products? Isn't that just another way to define profit?