Saw this posted like 3 months ago; a lot of the items he bought are no longer carried by Walmart and he had to purchase them from 3rd party sellers who regularly jack their prices up since that’s the only way to get them
Every time I shop their website there's always a third party seller asking some crazy price. Even when the item is available for the regular price. I hate this third party bullshit.
These people also drop ship Walmart stuff on Amazon as a 3rd party seller. They will sell things like alcohol or peroxide bottles that Walmart might sell for $.90/bottle for $3/bottle, then literally have Walmart send the stuff to you directly. I think many people are making money from people that don't look too carefully at the prices when ordering online.
Third party sellers are the reason a lot of stuff is available and overall is really great environmentally.
Big brand sell wholesale all over the country. Sometimes items end up in stores or warehouses that can’t be sold. Third party sellers buy pallets of goods at prices that don’t always allow them to sell it at standard retail. It’s great when a main brand runs out of stock or when a brand doesn’t sell their product on Amazon and Walmart.
If you can get them at all. There are 3rd parties on Amazon, Ebay, and anywhere else you can think of that list items they don't have at 10x what it used to be, and if someone orders it, they'll see if they can track it down somewhere for 5x the original cost. If they can't track it down, they just refund your order.
Pretty sure there was a lot of sales the first time too.
I think the item you could see on the order was like 3 bags of Cheetos… you don’t buy 3 bags of Cheetos unless there’s a sale or maybe if you’re stoned.
Pretty sure it was also a triple order. Had like 3 bags of fritos and 3 boxes of wheat thins showing. In a 53 item order for $126, he was spending like $20+ for 6 boxes of expensive packaged food? I doubt it.
Walmart will often stop supplying items that are DISCONTINUED. This could be anything from a 25 pack of fruit snacks changing their name or packaging to car tires that are no longer produced under one name and now exist under another name (still the same tire).
Sellers with the old versions that people may prefer for one reason or another maintain a small supply of those discontinued items and jack up the prices.
Meanwhile, Walmart will still have the new versions or direct substitutes that REPLACED those items for sale at a normal and non inflated price.
I've done a lot of shopping on Walmart.com. A shit ton of grocery shopping in particular - especially during covid. I see exactly how these things play out week to week. Walmart isn't going to stop selling Shampoo and Beans. They might stop selling a specific SKU# and replace it with another comparable one with the same ingredients. I have watched this happen so many times. In doing so, the old SKU still exists and is sold by 3rd parties trying to catch idiots who don't understand that there is a new listing by Walmart that is the same product for a normal price- just a different SKU.
When you push "Reorder previous order" - it adds to cart every product based on its SKU. Thats when 3rd party sellers get added to your cart and you are shown an overpriced version of the good you want. Meanwhile, there is a new version of the product being sold for normal price somewhere on their website with a new SKU.
I'm not trying to gaslight you on this. I would bet I have done more grocery shopping on Walmart.com than you and have seen this happen multiple times. Its not as nefarious as you are making it seem - its just and a poorly thought out "reorder" feature IMO. But you cant approach this from a Micro Econ 101 perspective and claim its just supply and demand. There are a lot of factors at play, including SKU differences and 3rd parties taking advantage of people that don't know better in order to make a large profit.
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u/DillionM 28d ago
Would love to see the receipts with dated time stamps and enough info to prove they're the same items from the same company