re: #165 Aceofwhat?

Both. And I don’t know about the food, but it’s entirely possible that goes through fewer runs of quality control as well.

I mean the Sony television you buy at Wal-Mart that has the same serial number as one you buy from Sony directly has the identical physical plan and materials but has not been tested as well as the one from Sony, and so is far more likely to have a fault that will cause it to fail.

The lines produced directly for Wal-Mart are the quality that they are— it’s not that everything in Wal-mart is a bad price, but that’s one example of them pretending they’re giving you a good deal, but basically lying to you. It’s just one example of their tricks.

They’re one of my companies biggest customers, and I don’t have an ethical problem with their existence. They do, however, game the system as much as possible and have way, way, way too much influence. A small company with a fun consumer product has a really tough time getting anywhere if they won’t play ball with Wal-Mart.

I don’t demonize them, there are plenty of companies that have records worse than theirs, but in everything from their treatment of labor to their treatment of manufacturers, they are ruthless. That’s fine, that’s allowed, but it still means they’re profiting at the expense of others.