Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

Comment by AdmiralAsshat | Hacker News Reader

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> Man if this isn't the dead-on honest truth. Amazon is so garbage now that Walmart.com is a trusted supplier by comparison.

I would have agreed with this sentiment six months ago, but now Walmart allows third-party sellers. I could consolidate to "At least BRICK-AND-MORTAR Walmart stores should have reliable products", but physical Walmart seems to have gotten in bed with this Chinese brand "onn." Their products are absolute garbage, and they seem to have jettisoned everything else from their store. I've had to tell my parents to please stop buying any electronics stuff from Wal-Mart and go to a Target or something when their iPhone cable breaks so that they can at least get a proper Anker cable.

It's really tiring how much time I have to spend protecting my family from junk products these days.

I think "onn" is just Walmart's "store brand" for generic electronics[1]. Kind of like "Insignia" and BestBuy. The design and manufacturing is all outsourced and these are usually quite crappy as one would expect.

> Walmart is Onn’s parent company. Onn is Walmart’s generic brand electronics label, and Onn products, including Onn TVs, are only available in Walmart stores.

[1] https://sycamorenet.com/blog/who-makes-onn-tv/

Regardless, the last time I went into a Wal-Mart where my parents live, it wasn't just that they were prioritizing the onn brand stuff: it was literally all they had. Reliable third-party brands like Anker weren't even on the shelves anymore.

I have a hunch this might be Walmart's finely tuned supply chain figuring out that Onn is what sells best at that location so they overstock that particular store with them.

Last time I was in Walmart (2 days ago) I picked up a SanDisk SD card specifically because I've had good luck with them. All the other brands were there and Onn was just the stuff on the bottom shelves.

I should add that I always select "available for pickup" when searching for something. In other words, stuff that B&M stores sell.

But even still, the third-party sellers aren't as bad on walmart as they are on amazon

They're literally the same - I see the same product sold by shady third parties being sold on both sites. At least with Walmart you can select "Available for pickup" and get products that Walmart themselves sell and stand behind.

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