Technobabble

Cheap Wal-Mart Laptop Craziness

Posted by on Nov 28, 2005 | 6 Comments

Remember those rumors about cheap Wal-Mart laptops and desktop PCs? The bargain basement notebook computers went on sale on Black Friday, inspiring bad craziness, coast-to-coast. How crazy? Well, this you just have to see to believe …

Flying laptops, frenzied crowds, mad rushes, pig piles, a shopper wrestled to the ground by security guards … it’s all in a day’s work at Wal-Mart, according to media reports.

Are those shoppers really getting the most laptop computer for their money or are there better deals out there?

In response to my earlier article about cheap Wal-Mart laptops and desktop PCs, Gnomie Erik made an excellent point:

The thing is, you can go to the Dell web site (and probably the HP and other manufacturer web sites as well) and get a pretty decent new PC for as low as $299 and a better one for $399-$499. So, that being the case, my rhetorical question would be – why go to Wal-Mart when you can get a name brand for the same or less money?

Gnomie Paul deals in economic realities:

While this is certainly the right place to declare your feelings, be aware that no one (including Wal-Mart) cares whether you would buy a laptop there. Many people will. Wal-Mart will make more money and people will have a functional but inexpensive laptop. Not everybody wins, but lots of people do.

Gnomie Bill weighs both sides of the debate:

Hard spot to be in. On the one hand you want to do what you can to help folks who need another PC or a laptop — or want to get started. On the other hand, you don’t want to encourage support for the Great Satan. I’ve been struggling with the conundrum for a couple of days. Glad you resolved it for me. Presume you know about walmartwatch.com.

And then there are the folks (like me) that really don’t like Wal-Mart …

Gnomie Ed wrote:

Dan, you’re not the only one who has never visited a Wal-Mart or a Sam’s Club. Neither have I or my wife would enter those forbidding leeches of economic woe. When people start to realize the economic impact the Waltons are having on this economy, I think Wal-Mart will wither away as many country superpowers have in the past. My only hope is the people wake up before they find themselves out of a job and surrounded by cheap worthless merchandise. Sorry I had to vent.

As for me? I vow not to set foot in one of those stores, whether it be for a laptop computer or a skid of paper towels. After all, they’d never think of offering the rugged laptop of my dreams …

  • SHUNTAE

    FIRST I WANTED TO SAY WHY SO MUCH NEGATIVITY TOWARD WAL-MART ME MYSELF LIKE WALMART THAT IS THE PROBLEM EVRY ONE WANTS TO ACT LIKE THEY ARE RICH NOT EVERY ONE COMES FROM RICH FAMILYS WAL-MART HAS A LOT OF GREAT ITEMS FOR THE HOME,KIDS,ETC IF YOU DON’T WANT A WAL-MART LAP TOP DON’T BUY ONE BUT DO NOT TRY TO KNOCK DOWN THE PEOPLE THAT DO GO TO WAL-MART BELIVE IT EVERY ONE CAN’T SHOP AT MACYS’ OR NORDSTROM I THINK THE PEOPLE DO TO WALMART FOR THE SAVINGS AND JUST FOR THE RECORD SOME PEOPLE WANT WHAT THEY WANT AND IF A LAPTOP IS 399 I SAY GET IT DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU PLAN TO DO WITH IF IT;S FOR A STUDENT TO TAKE TO COLLEGE TO TAKE NOTES WHY WOULD THEY NEED A 1500.00 LAP TOP FOR WHAT DON’T JUDGE UNTIL YOU’VE BEEN THERE

  • cameron

    Wow. Can’t believe you guys could be so ignorant. wal mart has got to be one of the greatest places ever. so convenient. maybe you had a bad experience?

  • Phillip

    Reading the remarks about the evil Walmart, it’s easy to transscribe the conversation. Replace “Walmart” with an ethnic type, nationality, race, skin color–anything and suddenly it’s obvious how anyone can appear to be prejusticed, bigoted, closed-minded. It’s so easy, maybe we need to be more careful to keep an open mind and recognise when we’re being proud of a closed one. Never been to Walmart? Well now, aren’t you smart.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com lynn

    Walmart is great I do most of my shopping there. You don’t have to spend a great deal of money for the same thing that you would buy somewhere else. I agree if you don’t like walmart don’t knock it. That is why god made us all different so that we could like and do things different.

  • Joyce

    If the public only knew the millions of dollars Walmart Stores
    contribute behind closed doors at their weekly meetings .
    To my knowledge they never give public notice .
    Just last week a generous contribution was made to the
    local red cross and many other entities.
    Last winter my husband, along with other employees,
    including the manager , cleaned a beautiful florida lake
    of debris .
    Check the clothing tags in your major stores and I grant
    you ,that you will find they too have come from third world countries.
    Take Heart…

  • terry

    I bought a new computer from the walmart in mt plesant,iowa. I was told that the waranrty would cover the screen if it was damaged. I went throught the hoops that walmart sugested. The bottom line is, I still have a broken laptop after it was damaged from tosheba, Stay away from WALMART. THEY DONT BACK THE PRODUCT.