Truth About Wal-Mart Back to School Lists
Weren’t we a little surprised to learn afterwards that Wal-Mart invented those lists. Not only were we a bit surprised to learn they did not, in fact, base the lists on anything remotely suggested by the school. Wal-Mart, in fact, put items on the list that are BANNED from being brought to school.
Our daughter’s school said Wal-Mart makes up those lists on their own, and a number of items (such as crayons) are on a list from the school. A list of items parents are specifically told not to have their child bring to school. Seriously?
The real back to school list also featured several items that are not on Wal-Mart’s list.
So these lists are, in essence, a trick to get parents (and I can only assume, being that it’s a discount store like Wal-Mart, a great many parents who are on a tight budget) to drop cash on unnecessary purchases. […] But what if I was broke? Or a single mom living on a low income? Or both? I truck over to Wal-Mart thinking I will stretch my precious dollars, only to drop cash on crap I don’t need just because I am trying hard to be sure my poor child isn’t embarrassed by missing needed supplies. That part of it sickens me.
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They have a fax send line at the top of the page (who on earth faxed these, if not the schools?). They not only state the school, but also the grade level and they have various lists based on teacher. Each teacher has slightly different supplies required. If that doesn’t look like something official from the school, I’m not sure what would. Perhaps adding a medieval wax seal to each list?
Why wouldn’t I want to patronize Wal Mart? I like paying low prices. Were the good old days when we had to budget for things like socks and underwear and ironing boards really that great?
I’d love to see a scan of one the lists. I bet the people who can’t tell that they aren’t from the school are the same types who couldn’t figure out the Florida punch ballots
Good parents look to Walmart as school resource? Makes sense to me. I often call Walmart to check on my teeth or find out what the current interest rates are. In my area almost every store that had a Sunday flyer had back to school stuff on the front pages. If you’re to lame to know what your kids needs just sit back and let the teachers and the state do the work. We have a regular drive here in Sacramento for all the kids going to school that can’t afford shoes, backpacks and other supplies cause their parents have to buy beer and cigarettes
Quite a few states have a no sales tax weekend for school supplies. If your looking to by a pc this is the time to buy it. I suppose crayons are a good deal too.
“Wal-Mart, in fact, put items on the list that are BANNED from being brought to school . . . a number of items (such as crayons) are on a list from the school. A list of items parents are specifically told not to have their child bring to school.”
Tell me I didn’t misread this: Crayons are banned from the school. What?!? How can that be? What kind of school bans crayons?
I already saw this over on The Consumerist. Don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly believe that Wal-mart is the devil… but I have a hard time believing that someone was in charge with coming out with a fake list of supplies. I think there was a breakdown in communication somewhere and no one wants to take the blame.
You really think someone is going to go so far as to insert a fake fax header to schlep more school supplies???
Gedddddoutttttahere.
I remember being given a list the first day of school. Then we would go get our school supplies.
I think this is a case of buyer beware. If you are shocked that a company would try and make money, your naive. If your mad that they are trying to trick you, check the fine print. Did Walmart advertise that they got this list straight from the teacher at the school?
I’ve worked in retail. Used to do everything short of liing to make a sale. That’s why I got out. Sick of preying on(and working with) stupid people.
I go to my childrens’ open house nights right before the school year starts. I speak with each teacher and find out what each child will need for each teacher. I then go to Wal-Mart and collect what we don’t already have at the house (for instance, a graphing calculator for my 16 year old).
In the past I have seen the lists in Wal-Mart and found them to be inaccurate. In fact I had a teacher tell me one year that the list was made by the school, not by her and she doesn’t require some of the stuff the school seems to think she should. Why would a Jr. High kid need glue sticks anyway?
I was wondering if one of their rifles was on the list.
Ya know, East LA…
The Wal-Mart near where I live doesn’t have anything like this. Since the list was customized to the extent of having the teachers name on it, I’ll bet it was an enterprising manager who pulled this off. Wal-Mart DOES promote managers who beat the quota.
I would be willing to bet that the schools sent the lists without even asking what the teachers wanted their students to bring.
I don’t think any paperwork ever came out of my high school without errors. A lot of stuff like that just gets thrown together by whoever works in the school office.
I believe this is a scam between both Wal-Mart and the schools. After 3 years I realized that only a fraction of these “must-have” items were actually being used by my son in class. I have an idea where the rest of the items were going, but I won’t go there. Anyway, these lists get trashed now.
I’m not a great Wally World lover either, but this seems to be marketing gone mad. The fact that this sort of thing is possible makes any appearance look legitimate.
The mud monster used to need all kinds of loony stuff, but usually later on during the school year as special projects popped up. Meantime, my wife usually bought the wrong basics – notebooks, etc…. (Gotta give her SKU’s and hope she asks the right clerk….)
I definitely don’t trust the school system to provide accurate information. Some years ago (the kid’s 21 now), we got a nastygram referring to four absences, threatening all kinds of horrible things. A quick look revealed that they’d “counted” three Major religious holidays and her grandfather’s funeral.
My response was that “while I’m willing to ignore this, somebody’s going to sue you….” No further response, but, come to think of it, she did end up in “Science For Blondes” a little while later.
(Can’t complain about that – being that she was one of the few who knew how to turn on a ball-point pen, it really improved her average 😀 . Her High School career was immensely improved by me knowing the father of her Assistant Principal.)
Regards
Huh. So in other words, capitalism is completely evil and no one should ever try to improve their sales. Schools should never link up to evil capitalist merchants to make up for lost tax revenue, since that would mean little jonny would actually have a desk.
Balderdash. Walmart is no more horrible than anything else in the world. It actually helps most communities by pulling in far more tax dollars and business than whatever was there in the first place.
This anti-Walmart bullcrap is just a waste of time and complete idiocy. There are far nastier things to protest and be upset about. However, it is obviously much easier to complain about American corporations than actually find some way to change the world for the better.
Huh. Call me a dinosaur, but when I went to grade school, we were expected to show up in neat clothes with a pencil and eraser.
Have things gotten better since then?
who fucking cares
Hmm…. seems like the school cannot go making demands anyway as to what a student needs..
Plus, how much crap does a child need to go to school to learn?
Has *anyone* actually followed the actual story links?????? If you were to do so, you’d find that there were a TON of responses to the original poster’s blog entry AND the blogger eventually posted a followup to the original. First of all, it was a *personal* experience and NOT a measure of the overall Walmart corporate profile. Secondly, the poster has since found that other stores have the same screwed up lists, give or take a certain degree of accuracy.
My household has used our local walmart lists in conjunction with the school’s input to the stores. So far so good.
How ’bout this possibility……for be it for me to even suggest such a thing…..
Maybe the school has interns working to provide those lists and fubar’d the process?????? It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that we’d see/hear about local public school processes getting dorked up.
Come on folks, use the internet….do some fundamental digging around and be above the nonsense of regurgitating what others tell you.
Have a nice day.
#8 – Why would a Jr. High kid need glue sticks anyway?
Why, to glue something to something else, of course. The same reason you or I might need a glue stick. 🙂
#14 – Call me a dinosaur, but when I went to grade school, we were expected to show up in neat clothes with a pencil and eraser.
And you used to get in trouble when you’d tie Laura Ingall’s pigtails to the inkwell.
From my experience , I woudl say someone in walmart never got said list from the school so they just made up a list. Why not who cares right? They will shop here regardless?? ( not me. I can’t stand the place)