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There is one single really key difference. Walmart takes responsibility for the products they put in their store. That they are genuine and represented as they

There is one single really key difference. Walmart takes responsibility for the products they put in their store. That they are genuine and represented as they are. They squeezed sellers, encouraged moves to china and all of that, but they aren't a marketplace - they are a store. Amazon has abrogated all responsibility in that area and pretended they are the equivalent of the open field on which a flea market is set up.

user3939382 4y ago
Yep. For the curious, go search Amazon for "1 TB USB" for a good laugh.
- vel0city 4y ago
  Sadly walmart.com is the same kind of trash. I searched 1TB USB and the top non-sponsored result was this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Jonephe-USB-Flash-Drive-1TB-Metal-Memory-Stick-3-0-Waterproof-USB-Stick-1000GB/1541636209 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Jonephe-USB-Flash-Drive-1TB-Metal... Which has some obviously fake reviews along with probably a real comment stating: "Only problem is the transfer speed sucks and it causes errors in half the files I transfer to it." Truly emblematic of how these scam USB drives work. And its the top organic result on walmart.com!
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  Ya, and if you report or comment on the scams, Amazon acts to protect the scams. They have to know what is going on and simply don’t care.
  - wardedVibe 4y ago
    they have done a bad enough job that fakespot has a viable business model vetting their products.
phil21 4y ago
> Walmart takes responsibility for the products they put in their store. Amazon also did this for it's physical stores. Walmart does not do this for it's web presence - it has a third party marketplace you need to actively avoid. I have both Prime and Walmart+ due to credit card benefits, and honestly don't see a huge difference in either experiences. Amazon is more spammy but faster shipping, Walmart less selection and slower but more reliable shipping. Walmart is more curated, but you still need to ignore the third party crap.
- rkagerer 4y ago
  Walmart third-party is a dumpster fire. Every single thing I ordered through it here in Canada arrived late or not at all, replacement orders sometimes arrived eventually, products were often damaged (a jug of glasses cleaner was leaking right through a soaked outer shipping box), vendors take zero responsibility, and it took multiple calls/emails/delays to get refunds from Walmart. I avoid it like the plague. I don't even use their website because it's hard to consistently filter that crap out. And their site wasn't great to start off with in any case. Good riddens.
  - rascul 4y ago
    Doesn't setting the retailer to Walmart filter the third part stuff out? Or am I missing something?
    - rkagerer 4y ago
      I think I have to repeat that after each search (at least back when I last used the site). And it usually took many searches to find the product I sought.
rileyphone 4y ago
Another really key difference is that Walmart operates retail locations that compete with (more realistically, undercut) smaller local businesses and gut small town America. Let's not paint a rosier picture just because it happened a while ago.
- Retric 4y ago
  Amazon has killed plenty of small businesses that survived Walmart. Walmart didn’t go after the hobby shop style niche business the way Amazon’s million product warehouse could. People worked out you can compete with Walmart by having a deeper selection as long as the population density supports it, but it’s not clear what small retail can do to survive Amazon.
  - mtnGoat 4y ago
    On the flip side Amazon created hundreds of thousands of small business, it allowed them access to a global market. The ones that died could have done the same and remained competitive, they were asleep at the wheel instead. I see Walmart as more of a monopolist by going into small towns and selling at a loss. Whereas Amazon was an equalizer allowing anyone to compete in a global marketplace, those that opted not to, got their lunch stolen.
    - Retric 4y ago
      Hardly, the vast majority of physical stores don’t manufacture anything they simply aggregate merchandise from wholesalers and operate a physical location. There is no way to transition that model to Amazon marketplace because they don’t have any way way to differentiate themselves. Attempting that transition would have simply lost them a great deal of money. There are a mix of ways to profitability operate with Amazon both legitimately or via various kinds of fraud. However, suggesting that transition is often as reasonable as telling a barber to open a veterinary clinic, it’s just a completely different kind of business.
      - mtnGoat 4y ago
makestuff 4y ago
Walmart now operates a marketplace (https://marketplace.walmart.com/ https://marketplace.walmart.com/). However, I am unsure if they take those same validation steps as they do in their physical stores or not.
- klyrs 4y ago
  Came here to make that point. I know that newegg and bestbuy have done the same. And, much like amazon and ebay, I expect pretty much zero verification and Sisyphean dispute processes.
tcmart14 4y ago
I do agree with your point on Walmart, what is on the shelves at a physical location. However, Walmart's online store is just as bad, if not worst, than Amazon.

user3939382 4y ago

Yep. For the curious, go search Amazon for "1 TB USB" for a good laugh.

vel0city 4y ago
Sadly walmart.com is the same kind of trash. I searched 1TB USB and the top non-sponsored result was this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Jonephe-USB-Flash-Drive-1TB-Metal-Memory-Stick-3-0-Waterproof-USB-Stick-1000GB/1541636209 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Jonephe-USB-Flash-Drive-1TB-Metal... Which has some obviously fake reviews along with probably a real comment stating: "Only problem is the transfer speed sucks and it causes errors in half the files I transfer to it." Truly emblematic of how these scam USB drives work. And its the top organic result on walmart.com!
seanmcdirmid 4y ago
Ya, and if you report or comment on the scams, Amazon acts to protect the scams. They have to know what is going on and simply don’t care.
- wardedVibe 4y ago
  they have done a bad enough job that fakespot has a viable business model vetting their products.

phil21 4y ago

> Walmart takes responsibility for the products they put in their store. Amazon also did this for it's physical stores. Walmart does not do this for it's web presence - it has a third party marketplace you need to actively avoid. I have both Prime and Walmart+ due to credit card benefits, and honestly don't see a huge difference in either experiences. Amazon is more spammy but faster shipping, Walmart less selection and slower but more reliable shipping. Walmart is more curated, but you still need to ignore the third party crap.

rkagerer 4y ago
Walmart third-party is a dumpster fire. Every single thing I ordered through it here in Canada arrived late or not at all, replacement orders sometimes arrived eventually, products were often damaged (a jug of glasses cleaner was leaking right through a soaked outer shipping box), vendors take zero responsibility, and it took multiple calls/emails/delays to get refunds from Walmart. I avoid it like the plague. I don't even use their website because it's hard to consistently filter that crap out. And their site wasn't great to start off with in any case. Good riddens.
- rascul 4y ago
  Doesn't setting the retailer to Walmart filter the third part stuff out? Or am I missing something?
  - rkagerer 4y ago
    I think I have to repeat that after each search (at least back when I last used the site). And it usually took many searches to find the product I sought.

rileyphone 4y ago

Another really key difference is that Walmart operates retail locations that compete with (more realistically, undercut) smaller local businesses and gut small town America. Let's not paint a rosier picture just because it happened a while ago.

Retric 4y ago
Amazon has killed plenty of small businesses that survived Walmart. Walmart didn’t go after the hobby shop style niche business the way Amazon’s million product warehouse could. People worked out you can compete with Walmart by having a deeper selection as long as the population density supports it, but it’s not clear what small retail can do to survive Amazon.
- mtnGoat 4y ago
  On the flip side Amazon created hundreds of thousands of small business, it allowed them access to a global market. The ones that died could have done the same and remained competitive, they were asleep at the wheel instead. I see Walmart as more of a monopolist by going into small towns and selling at a loss. Whereas Amazon was an equalizer allowing anyone to compete in a global marketplace, those that opted not to, got their lunch stolen.
  - Retric 4y ago
    Hardly, the vast majority of physical stores don’t manufacture anything they simply aggregate merchandise from wholesalers and operate a physical location. There is no way to transition that model to Amazon marketplace because they don’t have any way way to differentiate themselves. Attempting that transition would have simply lost them a great deal of money. There are a mix of ways to profitability operate with Amazon both legitimately or via various kinds of fraud. However, suggesting that transition is often as reasonable as telling a barber to open a veterinary clinic, it’s just a completely different kind of business.
    - mtnGoat 4y ago

makestuff 4y ago

Walmart now operates a marketplace (https://marketplace.walmart.com/ https://marketplace.walmart.com/). However, I am unsure if they take those same validation steps as they do in their physical stores or not.

klyrs 4y ago
Came here to make that point. I know that newegg and bestbuy have done the same. And, much like amazon and ebay, I expect pretty much zero verification and Sisyphean dispute processes.

tcmart14 4y ago

I do agree with your point on Walmart, what is on the shelves at a physical location. However, Walmart's online store is just as bad, if not worst, than Amazon.