Tenacious Creations

 In Canada the day after Christmas is boxing day, a day when most stores put on fabulous sales much akin to Black Friday after Thanks Giving in the United States. I really do not enjoy crowds or shopping that much in general so it normally does not mean much to me. However this year there was one item which I did have an interest in. A SanDisk Cruzer Micro USB 2.0 8 GB Flash Drive. They had these things on sale for $49.94 which incidentally is the same price they had the 2 GB version priced at (more on this later).

 Now because I hate crowds and I knew that being Boxing Day there would probably be one. So I decided that I would go first thing when the store open at 8 am Boxing Day Morning. Hoping that, even though there were many boxing day sales going on, most people in my small town would not be there that early. When I got there I was rewarded with the fact there were very few other people there, more than normally at this time but by no means crowded.

 So we entered the store got a cart and proceeded to do some shopping heading straight for the electronics department. Well lo and behold the 8 GB USB Flash Drive I was looking for was no where to be found. They had a similar one in the same packaging and for the same price but it was only a 2 gigabyte drive. Not the 8 gigabyte drive they had advertised in the flyer. If you weren’t paying attention it would be easy to buy this 2 gigabyte drive thinking it was actually the 8 gigabyte one.

 I was keen enough to spot this. So I got my wife to ask a sales associate where we would find the 8 gigabyte version (I loathe talking to sales associates). We were informed that they showed 15 in inventory and that they just had not found them yet. These were a while quantity lasts item and while this is a small town, 15 still seems like a low number. I would expect them to have at least 50. However the sales associate was very friendly and helpful and told me that she would take my name and phone number so she could call me when she found them. This sounded reasonable so I gave her my number and we finished our shopping.

 Around noon I became a little worried if they were going to call me or not. You see I need this USB Flash Drive for a project I am currently working on because its U3 and will allow booting off the USB drive. Now as I stated earlier I hate talking with sales associates in person and even more so on the phone. So after a little convincing I talked my wife into calling Walmart to see what was up. Well they had found the USB flash drives and yes my name was on the list so they would put one aside for me at the electronics counter.

 WooHoo so off we go to Walmart to pick up my USB flash drive. When we got there the parking lot was packed as you can see in the picture at the beginning of this post. The parking lot was full. It seems as though the rest of Estevan woke up and went there. I dreaded setting foot inside the store but off we went. Since my wife knows how much I dislike crowds she went to the electronics counter to pick up the USB Flash Drive. While I searched to see if any were put on the shelf.

 There was of course not a single one on the shelf. My wife was told by the sales clerk that these USB Flash Drives seem to be a popular item (duh). So this brings some questions to my mind. Were they ever going to put them on the shelf? Were they being hidden away so sales associates and there friends could have first crack? Is this a marketing ploy by Walmart to con its customers into buying the 2 gigabyte drives that looked identical and were priced the same? Something just seems a bit fishy here. Come on Walmart I know you meticulously track data on your customers and there purchase habits, including how the weather affects their buying habits. You can not play dumb and say you thought that 15 of these would be enough to even satisfy a small percent of your customer base here.

 Don’t get me wrong. I do understand the idea of putting a limited quantity priced really low to attract customers. But I mean come on, you have to make them at least available. Even though I was able to purchase the USB Flash drive that I wanted I still some how feel cheated. I shouldn’t be made to jump through hopes in order to spend my hard earned dollars anywhere. If a customer comes to me I certainly do not make them jump through any hoops. I am curious if this happens at other Walmarts or just my local one. Let me know leave a comment and let me know about your experiences.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!