21. Good job, Scooter!

They F'd up, you did nothing wrong, and #^@* Wal-Mart anyway.

I can't believe anyone try'n to bring their moral BS out for WM.

Posted at 3:01PM on Apr 20th 2007 by Testure

22. And 'Seizing upon the opportunity' are xbox360fanboy's words, not his, if you read the actual post.

Posted at 3:10PM on Apr 20th 2007 by Steve Pick

23. If you're going to complain about MS's pricing of this HD, keep in mind that identical HDs cost ~$80 OEM. If you got a much bigger HD cheaper, you got a 3.5" drive or got a 2.5" IDE drive. Not a 2.5" sata which normally costs more.

Posted at 3:17PM on Apr 20th 2007 by h0mi

24. the same thing happened to me with wii-motes. my friend and i went to target and he was lookin for remotes, the put them on the rack for the nunchucks, but they didnt have a rack for the remotes, so they were listed as $20. when they came up as $40 he said the sign says $20. so the guy rings it up at $20, and even tho i dont have a wii i went back and bought 2 more and then sold them on ebay for more then 100$ profit haha.

Posted at 3:40PM on Apr 20th 2007 by sirpilf

25. It's not unethical to allow a store to fulfill it's pricing promise policy on an item you've selected for purchase, even if you know it's likely mispriced. This *is* their policy. For all you know, it's on an early-release promotional price list, whatever.

It is however unethical for a publication to promote the idea that its readership scour a chain of retails stores for similarly mispriced items in order to "stick it to the man". It's the difference between burning a mix CD for a friend and putting your entire copyrighted music collection up on the Internet for download.

I'm no fan of many of Wal-Mart's labor related policies, but suggesting in print that everyone go out and try to find and exploit this shelf-label mistake is just as bad as what Wal-Mart does to American workers and Chinese laborers alike.

Whip your ethical backbone into shape, would you?

Posted at 4:00PM on Apr 20th 2007 by san

26. @25 do you read any of there articles on this website. All of them are chalked full of satirical humor. Lay of a website for just having a little fun.

Besides it's up to each individual consumer to decide to try and go out and try this.

Posted at 4:06PM on Apr 20th 2007 by Chuckles

27. Also, let me add. I did not ask for the 99.88 price. This was their choice alone. I had no feedback on it. I just kept my mouth shut.

Posted at 4:12PM on Apr 20th 2007 by Scooter

28. They did the same for me today, although I have to wait to pick it up until the 29th.

Posted at 4:20PM on Apr 20th 2007 by Scott

29. Scooter, I presume you're the Scooter who got the drive at the bargain price? That's why I defended you. You ran into a singular situation and merely allowed the retailer to execute a policy that they have in place to satisfy you and keep you as a customer. You no doubt must have, at least for the now, a favorable feeling about Wal-Mart and how they treat their customers when the store makes a mistake. I wouldn't blame you even if they'd tried to charge you the higher price and you'd ask them to please follow their own stated policy.

@26, "Our advice: scour your area Wal-Marts for mislabeled hard drives. You might end up with a killer deal." That's hardly clear satire. I don't even think it was intended as satire, and it certainly won't be read that way by many of this publication's readers. Sure it's up to the individual to decide if they think doing such a thing is ethical. But it's also up to the editors and publishers to make an ethical decision about promoting the practice as socially acceptable, or even "hip", en masse. Which they surely did.

Posted at 4:23PM on Apr 20th 2007 by san

30. We care about this why?

Posted at 4:52PM on Apr 20th 2007 by GRT

31. The reason Wal-Mart has the policy is simple: some states make it law. I live in NJ, and I know for a fact it is the law. My wife and I have regularly used it to our advantage at Macy's, Bloomingdale's, Target, Kohls, Sears, Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy and Circuit City. At some stores you have to ask for a manager, but he/she always honors the law -- and usually orders the clerk to change the signs ASAP. I don't think it is dishonest on the part of the consumer, so I say good for Scooter. Now, when I head off to Target for my weekly shopping expedition, I hope to be as lucky as Scooter...

Posted at 5:23PM on Apr 20th 2007 by Matt W.

32. san,

It certainly wasn't my intention to inspire a mob of unethical shoppers. At any rate, it's more directed towards the outrageously priced hard drive than it is Wal-Mart.

Besides, if I really thought X3F had that much influence on people, I'd use it for much more selfish purposes :)

Posted at 5:40PM on Apr 20th 2007 by Richard Mitchell

33. Richard, I'll take you at your word on that. The drive certainly is over-priced. But unfortunately the profit margin on it for Wal-Mart is surely very slim; that's why Wal-Mart doesn't discount games or consoles or the like much less than a few pennies. So Microsoft got full wholesale for it, but Wal-Mart ate the difference.

Matt, it's the law in some states not all. Large retail chains have policies that vary by state according to state laws. Primarily Wal-Mart uses this policy to engender good will with customers, but not out of altruism, but because several years ago some press outlet did a story on them about how a huge number of items labeled with discounted prices actually rang up at point of sale for quite a bit more; they blamed it on inventory system disparities, but it was ugly press for them. After that, they rolled out this sticker-price is the price policy.

Posted at 6:02PM on Apr 20th 2007 by san

34. Chuckles,

You're an idiot. If Wally World is *SO* horrible, then why do you constantly hear of situation where a new store will be opening up and trying to fill a couple of hundred positions, and several THOUSAND people show up?

It's capitalism, fair and square.

I for one, salute the guy. It's not like HE put the wrong price sticker on it. If Walmart has the policy, and Walmart lived up to it, then I congratulate both Walmart and him. As long as both parties agree with the situation, no one can complain, no matter your political leanings and how you may feel about Walmart.

Liberals. Sheesh.

Posted at 7:34PM on Apr 20th 2007 by TheIcemanCometh

35. Ya right, i was just at Wal Mart and seen GRAW2 for $29.99 witch is GRAW1s price and they told me that there store policy is, if its under $5 its free over $5 and you get $3 off, THATS BULL !!

Posted at 3:41PM on Apr 21st 2007 by trekx

36. When did the 120GB HD become available for sale? I thought they weren't out yet. Did I miss an announcement?

Posted at 6:18PM on Apr 21st 2007 by nick

37. I just went to my wal-mart and it was out with the lower price tag but just said "Xbox 360 Hard Drive"

They wouldn't sell it to me because it wasn't supposed to be released yet, but I did get a store manager to give me a handwritten note of a rain check. I can take pics if necessary.

Posted at 8:00PM on Apr 21st 2007 by Chad

38. "34. Chuckles,

You're an idiot. If Wally World is *SO* horrible, then why do you constantly hear of situation where a new store will be opening up and trying to fill a couple of hundred positions, and several THOUSAND people show up?

It's capitalism, fair and square.

Liberals. Sheesh.

Posted at 7:34PM on Apr 20th 2007 by TheIcemanCometh"

••• You don't know what you're talking about. Do your reseach and try to stand by that. I will sum it up for you -

It may appear to be capitalism at it's finest, but it becomes in effect the antithesis of capitalism in the long run:

WalMart opens stores in areas all around the country, going head-to-head with local businesses. Yet WalMart has the buying power of thousands of stores, versus the local chain having let's say, 3 or 4 stores. So when 'Local' store wants to stock something, they might be buying 50 units or something at $10 each from a manufacturer, while WalMart can approach the manufacturer and say "We will take 10,000 units for our nationwide stores, but we want a deal - $6 each."

Sounds good, right? Cheaper items FTW! But not so fast... A smaller manufacturer might not be able to make 10,000 units, and certainly can't afford to sell 50 units at $6 each... So the smaller store can't offer prices like WalMart and the smaller manufacturer can't meet the demands of WalMart, and both get shut out of the loop.

Who cares anyway, you ask? Well, it matters because it limits our choices as a consumer. Companies making items that WalMart doesn't buy have a harder time. Local businesses can't compete on simple items like paper towels, milk, televisions, etc. because they can't get the wholesale prices WalMart can, and the consumer loses because WalMart doesn't carry anything but major brands, limiting our access to smaller companies making items that might be taking a stand to manufacture items that are local to the area, healthier, better for the enviroment, or even games and movies that are considered violent or don't meet the criteria of 'middle America.'

Companies like WalMart kill local business, and in turn, puts people out of work, creating the groups of "several THOUSAND people" that you talk about.

Google-up on the phrase "McJob" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McJob )and tell me that "THOUSANDS" of people are taking jobs at WalMart as a first choice. I'm not even touching on the class-action lawsuits they lose concerning fair overtime and back-pay.
(Ok, maybe I will... Here's a recent one: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/20/national/main533818.shtml )

What we live in is not a TRUE 'capitalism,' we live in a REGULATED 'capitalism' where our government is supposed to monitor and regulate MONOPOLIES that prevent 'fair competition,' but the government is not on the average American's side right now. It is catering more often to CORPORATIONS and privatization. Not 'Liberal' nonsense, just the way it is right now.

So you truly don't know what you're talking about when you type "Capitalism, fair and square."

...Not that I can really expect a dude with a Starbucks/Abecrombie/Olive Garden/GameStop/WalMart mindset to ever care or understand.

If ANY of this means ANYTHING to ANYONE out there reading this, I would suggest reading journalist Naomi Klein's book "NO LOGO."

Posted at 4:31PM on Apr 22nd 2007 by ill trooper

39. In Michigan there's a law stating that the item must have a price tag on it, and it must be sold at the price.

But there's a catch, the money has to exchange hands. If the HD rung up at 179 bucks and the kid was like "but it's marked at 99!" the store would have their way with upping the price.

But if you buy it for 179, get the receipt, walk up to customer service, show them you were over charged. They will give you the difference back, plus double the difference, but only up to 5 dollars for being morons :)

Works with everything, buy meat for 3 dollars but it was marked at 2, give them the 3 dollars, goto the customer service counter and they will give you 2 dollars back (one dollar for the difference and an extra dollar for being fuckwads)

Posted at 9:26AM on Apr 23rd 2007 by Jeph

40. I work at wal-mart and know how this works.

First of all, there isn't a law preventing this unless we are advertising said price in a way meant to compete with competitors. Shelf tags do not constitute false advertising.

Secondly, and most importantly, you are not ripping off the billion dollar company. If you work a job, most likely you get a bonus, at some time in the year. At Wal-Mart, our bonus is based off the bottom line of the store, and this includes things like broken items, theft, and scenarios like this.

The corporation pulls the same amount of money from our store based on their projections, and however better we do from there is extra money for us. So really, when you rip off wal-mart, you're ripping off the store employees.

Thanks.

Posted at 3:25AM on Apr 26th 2007 by Avaren