Wal-Mart Sued for Selling Fakes

June 24, 2006 10:06 AM | Comments (1) | Posted in handbag, fake debate, fake, fendi, fashionwatch, sam's_club

According to Fashionwatch, Wal-Mart is being sued for selling fake Fendi accessories at Sam’s Club stores. According to Louis Vuitton, the parent company of Fendi, the Sam’s Club bags replicate the real Fendi accessories right down to the labels and signature logo and sell for almost 70% cheaper than the original bags.

Wal-Mart

Black Friday Deal: Sam’s Club Free Continental Breakfast

November 24, 2005 06:30 PM | | Posted in black_friday, sam's_club

Attn: Sam’s Club Shoppers. The store is opening at 5am on Friday November 25th, 2005. Get there before 9:30 am and receive a free continental breakfast.

Costco vs. Sam’s Club

November 22, 2005 12:39 PM | Comments (6) | Posted in costco, sam's_club

Comparing Sam’s Club to Costco is like comparing Wal-Mart to Target.  Sam’s club is located in areas where customers HAVE to budget shop and Costco tends to be located in wealthier suburbs, where customers have the luxury of choosing to budget shop, offers less selection and better quality, while the other offers more selection and a little less quality. One is the biggest seller of fine wines and the other is part of the company that is the biggest seller of well, everything.

From a budget fashion perspective, Costco is obviously the better store offering major discounts on big name brands like Calvin jeans for $22.99 and a great no questions asked return policy. Even its own house brand Kirkland, has clothing like men’s dress shirts that are comparable in quality to major department store brands like Marshall’s Fields and Nordstrom, with one exception— the Costco brand shirts cost 50% less.  However, what attracts budget shoppers like myself to the store is that Costco caps their markups at 14% over the price they paid for an item—significantly less than department stores (up to 50%) and yep, even less than Sam’s Club/Wal-Mart. Plus, employees at Costo make a ton more money than Sam’s Club associates—but as one person pointed out Costco employees often make more money because they live and work in wealthy suburbs where it costs more money to live.

Now, don’t go and cut up your Sam’s club card. Sam’s club has more locations and I think better deals on bulk items like toilet paper, bottle water, where brand name really doesn’t matter. Plus, Sam’s Club shares exclusive deals, like a limited edition Garth Brooks cd box set, with it’s sister store, Wal-Mart and the membership is about $15 cheaper than Costco.

Despite their great deals and bulk groceries (do you really need a 7 pound chocolate cake), I still think something is missing from these stores. Fashionistas will not want to head to the local Sam’s club en mass. With the exception of Calvin Klein jeans and nice dress shirts, the rest of the clothing selection leaves much to be desired. Which brings me to a major gripe about the clothing selection. I would estimate over 75% of the women I’ve seen shopping at my local Costco would be considered plus size, yet a majority of the clothing are in size 16/XL or below.

There are little to no signage on the aisles, so you often spend 30 minutes looking for peanut butter. Once you find the peanut butter, there’s a limited selection in terms of brands (buyers for the warehouse buy whatever brand they can get the cheapest for the week). Once you decide on a brand, then you have to wait 30 minutes in a check out line. However, I can see the appeal of the store, especially for families, with large grocery needs. For them, I say score a card, it’s worth it.