$100 for a can of Lysol and computer monitors for $9 were offered at walmart.com due to a bug in their pricing algorithm. Customers were quick to snap up bargains, some knowingly taking advantage of mispriced items hoping that Wal-Mart would honor prices as displayed. Others purchased items for 1000% of their retail value. So far Wal-Mart has not commented other than to say that it was likely human error. With the NASDAQ stock market crashing on a regular basis, and the new Obamacare website healthcare.gov problems, it makes one wonder if we are headed into a world filled with massive IT failure or if this some sort of PsyOp to see if we will buy a $100 can of Lysol.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s (WMT) website was selling kayaks for about $11 and computer monitors for about $9 earlier today owing to a technical error that led the world’s largest retailer to shut down its online store for maintenance.
The pricing abnormalities were caused internally, said Ravi Jariwala, a Wal-Mart spokesman.
“We’re working quickly to correct” it, he said in a telephone interview, adding that there would be “intermittent site unavailability” until then.
If the Bentonville, Arkansas-based chain doesn’t process the orders, it risks alienating customers who thought they were getting legitimate deals. Jariwala said the company hasn’t decided whether it will honor prices for items already ordered.
“We’re still working through those details and will follow up with customers,” he said.
The retailer also may have lost sales while its website was down in the middle of the day.
Some items including kayaks, monitors, televisions and gym equipment were heavily discounted while other items were priced up, said Christian Antonio, a Pittsburgh-area blogger who earlier today wrote about the pricing abnormalities. A can of Lysol had sold for more than $100 and Kool-Aid packets were selling for more than $70, Antonio said in an e-mail.
The price issues affected many departments, Antonio said. Children’s cribs were offered for $28 and highchairs for $7, he said. Exercise equipment such as elliptical machines and treadmills that normally sell for hundreds of dollars were offered for $33 and $21, he said.
