Robert Grant
05-14-2007, 07:44 PM
I went to a Wal-Mart this past Saturday (5-12), and could not help but notice that seemingly everybody in the parking lot was loading a new TV set into their cars.
Turns out they were having a massive TV clearance. I asked a worker about it, and she said "we are getting all new TVs, these have to go". Well, it made sense that they would clear out their stock of analog-only sets to avoid having to try to sell them with the warning stickers they would have to place on them soon.
The strange thing, they were also having clearance sales on all the digital tuner sets as well.
The analog sets were going incredibly cheap (13" color <$40, and 19" color <$60).
But here's the DANGER:
About a month ago, I noticed that the paper sign card on the shelf below the Durabrand 19" analog color tv had been replaced with a new card that described it as "19" color SDTV"......"receives analog and digital signals". Seeing the low price on this set, I went to look closer at it. Neither the TV itself nor the box it is packed in carry the words "digital" nor "SDTV", and the set was of the same model that they had been selling for over a year, with no mention of digital reception. I tried to bring the matter to a clerk, who said "it has buttons instead of knobs, it's digital!"
Now they have this same claim on the sign card below the 13" Durabrand set, as well, and I wonder how many of the hundreds of customers buying these sets think they are getting a digital set.
I am 99% sure that these sets are analog only. PLEASE correct me if i am incorrect.
Honestly, I don't think WMT is actually *trying* to mislead anyone.
The public knowledge of digital TV is abysmal, and those at WMT probably think that the "Standard" in Standard Definition TV means that the set IS the same as a traditional set.
I think, as of last count, there are about 225 people in the world that know the difference between an SDTV set and an analog color tv :-)
Rob
Turns out they were having a massive TV clearance. I asked a worker about it, and she said "we are getting all new TVs, these have to go". Well, it made sense that they would clear out their stock of analog-only sets to avoid having to try to sell them with the warning stickers they would have to place on them soon.
The strange thing, they were also having clearance sales on all the digital tuner sets as well.
The analog sets were going incredibly cheap (13" color <$40, and 19" color <$60).
But here's the DANGER:
About a month ago, I noticed that the paper sign card on the shelf below the Durabrand 19" analog color tv had been replaced with a new card that described it as "19" color SDTV"......"receives analog and digital signals". Seeing the low price on this set, I went to look closer at it. Neither the TV itself nor the box it is packed in carry the words "digital" nor "SDTV", and the set was of the same model that they had been selling for over a year, with no mention of digital reception. I tried to bring the matter to a clerk, who said "it has buttons instead of knobs, it's digital!"
Now they have this same claim on the sign card below the 13" Durabrand set, as well, and I wonder how many of the hundreds of customers buying these sets think they are getting a digital set.
I am 99% sure that these sets are analog only. PLEASE correct me if i am incorrect.
Honestly, I don't think WMT is actually *trying* to mislead anyone.
The public knowledge of digital TV is abysmal, and those at WMT probably think that the "Standard" in Standard Definition TV means that the set IS the same as a traditional set.
I think, as of last count, there are about 225 people in the world that know the difference between an SDTV set and an analog color tv :-)
Rob