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112 Comments
- JonnyTrombone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+98Like people who read The Consumerist are the kind to be shopping at Walmart anyway...
- DrStephanHeimer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+75@broomett
"Consumerist is just a few more buried stories away from a ban"
I wish we could say the same for you. - kylebrothert, on 10/12/2007, -0/+60Copyright is compulsory in the United States. It happens automatically when you create a work.
- nonsapiens, on 10/12/2007, -2/+57@broomett
How much is Wal-Mart paying you anyways? - AlfaWolph, on 10/12/2007, -0/+44I guess they go in the 14%, "conscientious objectioners", category, eh.
- Cerialthriller, on 10/12/2007, -4/+35i thought it was pretty common knowledge the WalMart had horrible business practice. One near me fired a girl after a car accident because she was physcially unable to smile anymore. ***** ridiculous
- Sneakernets, on 10/12/2007, -7/+30Which is acceptable, but copyrights have been abused to the point that I've seriously considered if the world would be better off without it.
- Sneakernets, on 10/12/2007, -5/+24calling your consumers such things as "trendy" and "contentious objectors" really puts the icing on the cake. How would you like to be viewed in this way by a corporation? They might as well gone and said "ignorant fools".
You should see the slide show, son. You'll see why they did this. - vertinox, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18@"How much is Wal-Mart paying you anyways?"
What's the minimum wage these days for cashiers? - AlfaWolph, on 10/12/2007, -1/+19Ahhh the mighty but basesless DMCA. A favorite of lazy IP lawyers everywhere!
- plonk420, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17http://rapidshare.com/files/20790789/walmart.rar.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IBCTP2LY
you can't stop the signal >:D - anti_hax0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Copyright may subsist in creative and artistic works (e.g. books, movies, music, paintings, photographs, and software) and give a copyright holder the exclusive right to control reproduction or adaptation of such works for a certain period of time.
A trade secret (which is sometimes either equated with, or a subset of,"confidential information") is secret, non-public information concerning the commercial practices or proprietary knowledge of a business, public disclosure of which may sometimes be illegal. - andocom, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14If you don't think all corporations of any size have market research which segments consumers using labels comparable to "trendy" and "contentious objectors" you are deluded. My guess is they sent a take down as this is their internal market research and hence strategic data which oddly enough they probably don't want their customers or more importantly competitors reading if possible.
I'm all for taking on corporations when deserved, but you would have to be naive to the extreme to be surprised or offended by this, retail is all about knowing your market and selling to them. - Sneakernets, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13well someone had to say it. ass. :P
By the way, The New York Times has been notified of this and this could possibly.. get very ugly, very quickly. - wild, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Ugh, people , please. This is not bad business practices. It is STANDARD business practices. It is called market segmentation and research, and every company n the Fortune 500 works this way. It just usually isn't seen consumer side.
- mrmdc, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11I'm guessing they realize that they pretty much have to take it down if they don't want to be steam rolled..
Not sure if everyone realizes that walmart has 1.8 million employees and has $344.992 billion in revenue each year..
How much does the consumerist make.. ? Lawyers are expensive. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Honestly! You're blaming walmart because 730+ days ago you didn't have the balls to stand up to your manager, or just weren't smart enough to call him out for his illegal and absurd request? And you haven't been able to find a replacement job (at least equal to a... walmart job) in the last 730+ days?
- yensed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Link to the "leaked PowerPoint presentation": http://consumerist.com/consumer/walmart/leaks-walmart-powerpoint-on-3-customer-plan-241939.php
If only The Consumerist was ran by The Pirate Bay.. I would love to see PB's witty reply to that notice. - inkswamp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Funny, I can't figure out what category I fit into. I tend to rate service over price. I'll pay a little more if it means getting better service. Then again, given that WalMart's service is *****, it's no wonder they don't recognize the existence of shoppers like me... and it's the main reason I continue to avoid their stores like the plague they are.
- tokyopimp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9Yeah well, I value service to... but Wal-Marts service is about as good as every other chain store around, and Sams Club service is excellent (you have to be a member though), Yeah I can go into somewhere like Walgreens and buy some allergy medicine and bring it to the clerk and pay for it, and pay at least 2-4 dollars more for the same medicine, or I can go to Wal-Mart and do the same thing and save a few bucks. I think I'm going to Wal-Mart.
Service is almost non-important when I know exactly what I'm buying, where it's at in the store, and that's what wal-mart is used for. For people to buy ***** they need for a lot cheaper than most chain stores, and with the same amount of service. Why do you think they have automated checkouts in wal-mart now, because service is not needed in this kind of store. - davidrools, on 10/12/2007, -13/+20Wal-Mart sucks. Watch this movie:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3836296181471292925& - Chongo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I read the consumerist pretty much everyday. I can't believe how much some of you more hermit internet types get your panties in such a bunch. Its a great website that HELPS people. Yes, sometimes it LOOKS like they are focusing on a company that made a mistake and it LOOKS like they are smearing it.... but if you actually READ the damn site you will see that they give the other companies plenty of chances to make everything good again. Also, most of the companies in their "sights" are HUGE billion dollar companies.
Really broomet... go outside... get some fresh air... drink a hot chocolate and sit at a park.... - lifeandtimes, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Assuming your story contains all the facts, why would you not go to your manager's manager and complain? Last time I checked you cannot be forced to work for free just because your boss wants you to. Again, if you're telling us the whole story (doesn't sound like it), what's Walmart supposed to do about crap managers if people don't complain about them when the managers do something wrong?
"now im in my second year of unemployment"
Go find a job than. - ChumpChief, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Like it or not, you have a (probably mildly insulting) label to go along with your buying habits too. One of the most important parts of marketing is classifying your target consumer base. Wal-Mart isn't doing anything unusual here.
- laterallateral, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Guess publications like http://www.foundmagazine.com/ are in deep ***** then, eh?
Hurry up and blow the whisltle! Broomett? we're looking at you... - locusto03, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8broomett = blocked troll
Thank you and have a nice day. - edanite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@combatchuck
Explicit notice is no longer required for copyright. Currently, everything tis automatically protected by copyright. For example, if you draw a doodle on a napkin at a restaurant and leave the napkin there, if the waiter (or waitress, or manager, or the next customer, or whoever) wants to publish the doodle, he would have to get your permission first.
See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_copyright_law - Estaris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@broomett
As I tried to read this thread, your name kept popping up and was attacking everyone with any opinion that was not like your own.
If you had a point anywhere in this thread, in which you spammed to exhaustion, it was completely lost.
Your delivery is insulting, makes widely general assumptions, and highly pretentious.
You come across as a wanna-be or at best an executive of Walmart.
That smart cap you have on is a teeny bit too tight.
Talk about, as you did further down, people's parental skills... your parents obviously needed to put you through some sort of sensitivity training when they saw you skinning the cat alive...
Of course beating you more often would have been a very good option. XD
I will advise less caffeine and a nice little stress ball...
You are fired from my forum sir, as you have nothing to add to any conversation that I can see except maybe a Post Office episode.
Welcome to my /blocked list Mister Sunshine. :) - Yorn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5QUOTE:"If I'm not mistaken, the work has to actually say "Copyright Wal-Mart" on it for the copyright to be held up in court."
You're mistaken.
Anything you create is yours. It's how the system works in the US. In other countries, what you say might be true, but that's why people put trademarks and copyrights on their work, to provide further evidence.
If anything, though, most countries just buckle to the US precedent if enough pressure is put on them as evidenced from the MPAA vs. US DoJ vs. Sweden Police vs. PirateBay incident. The whole problem with the RIAA and MPAA is they are trying to enforce copyright that is twice removed from them. Even the actual copyright creators don't agree with the actions taken. - SkippyDoorknob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You can use it to rip DVDs on Linux
- Y0tsuya, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7My guess is Sneaker here doesn't have a real job yet. Once he gets a job in sales and marketing he'll be cranking out these types of powerpoint slideshows by the bushel. Even if you're in engineering you're not insulated from this.
- kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The cat is out of the bag, copyright or not. I'm surprised it took this long for Wally World to pull it down, which btw appears not have happened yet.
- samnetwork, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Ah Walmart. Killer of small towns and subject to one of the funnier south park episodes.
- DavidYeah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I thought boommet was a conservative type-- the type that hates government and believes the market is 100% fair 100% of the time. I figured he would be all for consumers in every single respect, and more information that can get to customers the better, even stuff that might make the company look bad, since informed customers are the best kind of customers.
Consumerist, in my opinion, is the best thing to ever happen to digg, since it brings these kinds of stories to the forefront so all of us consumers can see them. Knowing that Wal-Mart and perhaps thousands of other big business retailers engage in this kind of deep profile research scares the hell out of me, because i have to wonder what they do with that information after they're spent millions figuring us out. - morningmatters, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Interesting research. In a nutshell Walmart breaks down consumers to groups like "price valued shopper" (poor white trail trash types with lowest average education/income and most kids), "brand aspirationals" (poor blacks who are into sports brands), and "price-sensitive affulents" (medium incomed whites with good education). It's unfortunate the slide did not show any statistics on the "conscientious objectors" group..
- Beaver6813, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Just downloading that site and links 1 page deep now ^^. ***** Walmart.
- Y0tsuya, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6@Viego
Dust off your butt, stop smoking hash, and go out there and get a job. Some people just like to find other things to blame for their own personal failures. - SkippyDoorknob, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Exactly.
If Wal-Mart wanted to hush this up, they would have been better off just keeping quiet and not drawing any attention to it and it would eventually just fade away. But now they've turned their own spotlight on it, bringing in even more publicity than before. - kurttrail, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Um, the first link is still working.
- yacks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4this whole story is much to do about nothing... Lets face it... most customers can be broken down into different categories. and I really don't see what the brewhaha is all about on this. It's not like they are saying.. ok you are a conscientous objector, so you cannot shop here. It's just preparing a marketing plan to increase their bottomline. Some people just need to get a grip and realize that they will get labeled and labels are not always bad.
- nevesis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@broomett
I'd critique your spelling but I assume you border on illiteracy, so let's cut to the details..
Expensive stores? Which expensive stores, exactly, are in competition with Wal-Mart? What are you even talking about? I digress.
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Wal-Mart is NOT 100% within their rights. The Consumerist, as a modern news blog with over 1 million readers, can exercise news commentary fair use under 17 USC 107.
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You're welcome to your opinion of The Consumerist -- but personally, I find it to be a great blog, pointing out the indescencies of behometh corporations which no longer care about their customers. And if I can help someone who is out a few grand from a shady Best Buy, I'm always glad to.
Finally, please show proof of Consumerist "making up" incidents, otherwise, you're committing the tort of libel. - Lemonblood, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Time to move to Sweden.
- tim507, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I personally dont like to be categorized, and if so i like to know which category i would fall into. DMCA that DMCA ORDER ASAP Walmart.
- finkployd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Why should they? The domain contact info is all in Hungary.
http://www.whois.net/whois_new.cgi?d=consumerist.com&tld=com
Interesting how the letter went to NY, NY though.
Might they be trying to skirt all the laws and rules they blast others for sideswiping? - nsmitchell804, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3low income, most kids, most religious.... hmmm. I never thought about it like that. Just make me ponder all the stereotypes a little more. Weird connections.
- seopher, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm glad you've been unemployed for two years, because if you don't realise that being forced to work for free is illegal then you deserve everything you get because of it. Less of the racism too, if you don't mind.
- sergeantmudd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I don't disagree with the notices though. They are clearly abused, but what would have happened before the DMCA? Wal-Mart would have sent a cease and desist letter and sued if they didn't comply. At least DMCA says you can't be sued if you comply with the letter. If the claim is baseless, than the Consumerist can just ignore it and get sued. The law may be crap, but I think holding websites harmless for posting "copyrighted" material unless a letter is sent is a good thing.
- Darkside2984, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Get over it. Every major big box does surveys that give them results like this. Hell, i've done about half a dozen and i'm only 22. Wal-mart is no more evil than Trader Joe's so get off the high horse...although the slide show was admittedly a bad way to show things "they live paycheck to paycheck"...
- popsumer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2UPDATE: Walmart Wins Because We Fumbled
http://consumerist.com/consumer/walmart/walmart-wins-because-we-fumbled-243848.php - bobothn, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6@mrmdc
I agree consumerist might go down hard with this one. wallmart is not a company to mess with when lawyers might be involved and as most of you have already said yes it would be a pr nightmare to sue a consumer advocate web site but then again who views that website and shops at wallmart? I do but for me nothing any one can say or do will stop me from shopping there (unless they raise their prices higher then the competition). -
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