OnHeadphones.com Editor's Review
Wal-Mart.com
05/07/07
The Good
Walmart.com is helpful and informative with a wide range of products. They have a generous 90 day return policy and thousands of stores nationwide.
The Bad
With corporate muscle, they have a reputation for being greedy and unfair employers to keep their costs down. The headphone selection is not impressive with only about sixty choices and nearly all of them earbuds and portable phones.
The Verdict
Walmart.com has reasonably low prices and wide variety of items for sale, but the company policies towards employees are questionable and the headphone selection is weak.
Americans are often put in a difficult position when it comes to consumerism. With an inclination and a genuine financial need to conserve funds, they want to find the lowest possible prices. Wal-Mart has often served as the department store with the lowest prices and as a result, this is where many American’s choose to shop. There is, however, a major faction of Anti-Walmart protesters who are vigilantly rallying against unfair employment practices and working conditions. Their beef with the superstore is concerned with low wages, sexual discrimination, outsourcing US jobs overseas, etc. There is a ton of literature on this subject that is worthy of being investigated, but as it is not my job to editorialize here, we will move on to headphones. Their selection is somewhat limited, only turning up about 50 results in a search and most of them were earbuds and portable headphones. Although, I was impressed to find UltimateEars and some noise-canceling models from Sony and Phillips, there was almost nothing hi-end or anything from AKG, Grado or Ultrasone.
They do have a ninety-day return policy and you can return by mail or even to your local Wal-Mart store. They have thousands of store locations and are Fortune 500’s number two largest company. You can apply for a Wal-Mart Discover or a Wal-Mart Credit Card and they also accept Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express as well as a ‘Bill Me Later’ option. They do not accept checks or money orders. Although they have typically low prices, I was still able to find cheaper prices on their headphone stock elsewhere. Walmart may be a dependable and low cost option, but it might not be the best option.
