Wal-Mart Helps Kids Spam Parents With Gift Wishes
from the still-figuring-out-this-online-stuff dept
Wal-Mart has run into some online marketing troubles lately, with their fake MySpace ripoff and then the questions about how open they were with a supposedly independent blog. It looks like they continue to keep making bad choices, however. The latest is that parents are pissed off to find Wal-Mart spam pressuring them to buy certain gifts for their kids this holiday season. It appears that Wal-Mart has created a website for kids (with two elves named "Wally" and "Marty") that shows them various toys and products, and asks the kids whether or not they like the toys. If the kid answers yes, the elves promise to "plead your case" to the kids' parents, and do that in the form of emails telling them what Wal-Mart says the kids want -- even though they weren't able to make their own wishlist, but just go through a series of products clicking the equivalent of "yes" or "no" to what they might want.
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Wal-mart sucks!!!
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By your analogy, an online greeting card sent from one person to another would also be spam.
Walmart is great for America - and the author of this article is an idiot!!!
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If anything they should keep a running list and ask the child at the end of the list to either send it or not.
It, to me, is a pathetic way to "guilt" parents into buying everything their kids want
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Wal-Mart is nothing like what Sam Walton started it for. Bet he's turning over in his grave watching Wal-Mart use sweat shops in China to make a buck in the USA.
That 60 Min special just wasn't enough to get regulators attentions. Wal-Mart and there monopolistic tactics need busted up just like the bells.
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wal mart
Typical of Wal Mart to make a buck on anything, including pressuring the parents
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No
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I will not shop at Wal-Mart, I will gladly pay 20-30% more and get what I need from a locally owned shop. Most of the time the price difference it not that big.
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Walmart
This is just one more reason why.
Buy at your local shops people.
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Small Mom and Pops are great. But Wal Mart is just a bigger fish swallowing up the smaller competition in a free market society. That's how this country is built.
I hate Wal Mart. I think they're business practices are appalling. But they are simply doing what every capitalistic entrepreneur wishes they could. We must decide who the real devil is this situation is.
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Wal-Mart is Teh Suck
They so very desperately want to be cool and hip when they are anything but.
I will never shop at Wal-Mart. They have a long, long track record of exploiting workers, localities, customers and supply chains.
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Wal-Mart Helps Kids Spam Parents
Thanks all you Commies
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WOOHOO
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my child
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my 2cents
I agree that asking children to provide their parents email address without their consent is wrong, although I don't have any details on if they violated these rules. If they did, they should be reprimanded and/or punished as appropriate.
But, I do feel that the marketing team or development team that came up with this idea probably had the best intentions in mind. I can easily see them thinking that allowing a child to make a wish list of presents would in theory help both the child and the parent to have a better holiday (SHOPPING) experience.
Then again, some of the worst things have been done with the best of intentions, and I think they overlooked the fact that people hate getting unrequested emails, don't want their child freely giving out their email address, and probably don't want a retailer too involved in what they teach their children about what the holidays are about. (and lets not forget about the selection of toys they choose, sure to tick off the majority of parents in one way or another)
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our local wallyworld was the top sell/best store a few years back. we have mom and pops...why? cheaper = better.
more money saved...=more money to spend elsewhere (i.e. nascar, beer, cigarettes)
not the brightest of the buhc..but ya know? and did you know many rich people will buy at discount stored? why? because they were froogle before they were rich, and aren't used to spending money on everything.
but i digress.
if the kid signs up for it, it's nto spam. it's the "weekly newsletter" if walmart then takes the info, sells it or begins sending unsolicited email w/o ways of ending it, that's a problem.
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