> You wouldn’t expect to pay the same in Mountain View as you would in Albequerque.

If this isn’t the appeal of walmart, what is?

Low prices, yes. But real estate and labor costs are lower in New Mexico than California. Perhaps taxes too. So they have different prices by region. (Otherwise they couldn't be profitable everywhere, and then they lose economies of scale) Not that different on pricing differences between countries.

Right, but then why buy from walmart if the competitive price is gone (as shown in the original example of online vs retail price)? If it’s just a single region agnostic price plus some location sensitive fee, they’re just another branded ecommerce store beholden to their sellers and distribution for pricing determination. Amazon wins with price, quality, inventory, and selection.

> Amazon wins with price, quality, inventory, and selection.

Not always... I bought something on Amazon last week and the 3rd party seller drop shipped it from Sam's Club (wal-mart). I saw the packing slip, looked it up on samsclub.com and realized I had paid 20%/$4 more at Amazon than they paid at Sam's Club.

Amazon has a great price on a lot of things, which has taught us to think they have a great price on everything. Amazon also takes at least one day to get something to your house. If you need something immediately, that's where retail wins every time... it doesn't even matter what the price difference is.

Right, but we’re discussing walmart.com vs amazon.com because walmart.com doesn’t have the crazy low prices that the retail store does. You’re absolutely right you can easily undercut amazon at sam’s club, so (eg) why can’t walmart.com match that undercut?

So why don't they advertise the Walmart Price (tm) in small font, and then add a multiplier which takes all that into account?

Seems like a good way to influence consumer sentiment in places that won't play ball with you, if you're an abusive plutocratic organization.

Im not sure I've ever been to a Walmart, but isn't the appeal that it's a one stop shop (+ low prices)? That seems pretty damn useful and has approximately nothing to do with cross-region price differences.

Right, but that makes the online component even more confusing. Why would you ever order from walmart.com if they don’t offer those competitive prices? Amazon has plenty of stock, more than walmart can compete with. I can’t buy notebooks from japan from walmart—at least, not of the same quality, variety, and price amazon offers.

I had the impression that they're just saying that Wal-Mart's prices online are occasionally higher than their prices in-store, not that their online prices are higher than Amazon's.

I'm becoming increasingly wary of buying things on Amazon. I've received bootlegs from listings that looked genuine, fallen prey to misleading reviews for things that turned out to be of substandard quality, and so on. And it's been getting worse over the last couple of years. And this is even with "fulfilled by Amazon" items. They're not good at policing their reviews or listings for accuracy, and it often turns out that the same listing might get you different products between different orders.

> Why would you ever order from walmart.com if they don’t offer those competitive prices?

I've bought from Walmart online only once or twice ever: in one case they had the camera I wanted for $250 cheaper than Amazon and in another Amazon didn't have the product at all.

woah! where do you live?

There are no Walmarts in San Francisco AFAIK, but there were plenty in LA, where I grew up. We just never went to them, you'd have to ask my mom (and all of my friends' parents) why.

I'd say that's the appeal of Amazon prime - not Walmart. Amazon is much less affected by local market dynamics