Ad Terras Per Aspera

Last night I watched a two hour program on CNBC named The Age of Wal-Mart, a decently two (three? four?) sided view on one of the world’s largest companies. It was originally aired in 2004, I believe.

Well, one of the groups featured was a tiny little startup called Wallpocketts: little pieces of material that stuck to the wall and provided a pocket you could stuff light items in… photos, receipts, cards, CDs, pretty much anything like that.

Through-out the program, you got to see the saga of them trying to get Wal-Mart to carry their product. At the end, Wal-mart finally decides to carry their product, and they’re beyond happy. Except one little problem: I googled their domain, and they’re no longer around. I don’t know what happened, but I’m pretty sure of one thing… Wal-mart eventually back-stabbed them.

It is currently available from Hulu.

Yup, you heard me, Walmart sucks. The Big W, Wally World, Wallzinski’s Deparment Store, whatever you want to call it, it sucks. Actually, I’ve known this for awhile. They never have anything on the shelves, they’re far overpriced, and their staff is 99.9% American Douchebag.

So what made me bother blogging about it today? Normally, for small items like, say, ink carts, it’s usually cheaper to hit some local joint. Around here, no company sells the ink carts for my i9900 except Walmart… and they sell them for $11.99 a peice. Eleven dollars and 99 fucking cents. Compared to Amazon, which is known for their decent-but-other-places-have-them-cheaper prices, they sell the better sellers for $8.52 (example: BCI-6PM Photo Magenta) and the rest for for $9.19 (example: BCI-6PC Photo Cyan, BCI-6Y Yellow).

Lets add up the math. I currently want to buy a Photo Magenta, a Photo Cyan, and a Yellow. By going to the local Walmart…

Walmart
11.99 Photo Magenta Cart
11.99 Photo Cyan Cart
11.99 Yellow Cart
1.80 Maine State Sales Tax (5%)
-----------
37.77 Total

… I’d end up paying $37.77. With Amazon, qualifying for “FREE Super Saver Shipping”, and the A9 discount, I pay…

Amazon with Super Saver Shipping and A9 discount
8.52 Photo Magenta Cart
9.19 Photo Cyan Cart
9.19 Yellow Cart
0.00 Shipping
-0.42 A9 discount (π/2%)
-----------
26.48 Total

… a total of $26.48. That is a $9.48 difference. In fact lets up the ante. Lets say I wanted to get things sooner, and I didn’t qualify for the A9 discount…

Amazon with Standard Shipping and no A9 discount
8.52 Photo Magenta Cart
9.19 Photo Cyan Cart
9.19 Yellow Cart
6.76 Shipping
-----------
33.66 Total

Still a $4.11 difference! “Always low prices” is a load of bullshit. That said, I’m going to go buy three ink carts at an even lower price from Amazon.