Online Super Center - DVD Rental / Photo / Pharmacy / Vacation
Written: Feb 24 '05 (Updated Apr 28 '05)
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Wal-Mart is a Super Center online as well. In addition to purchasing general merchandise, I also use their DVD Rental Club and uploaded pictures to their Photo Center and it’s all delivered to me without ever leaving my desk.
General Merchandise
Wal-Mart offers the same great low-prices online as the do in the store. Sometimes they even have better prices on specialty items online! An excellent example of this is online only offers in the computer and laptop section.
From the left menu near the bottom you will find some money saving search features. This is the area that puts Wal-Mart ahead of the competition in my opinion. You can search by: special offers, below list prices, clearance, dare to compare, online only, rebate available, rollback, special buy, Wal-Mart exclusive and new products.
I find the shipping charges to be reasonable and the delivery times short. Returns are very painless. You have 90 days to return an item either by mail or at any Wal-Mart store following the normal return policy and exclusions.
The only drawback that I have found is that their website is huge and I often spend more time looking for items and feel somewhat overwhelmed by how much information there is on their site.
Wal-Mart Online DVD Rental Club
I have tried Netflix and Blockbuster DVD Rental Clubs but I am always lurking for a better deal. I noticed that Wal-Mart offered a 30-day free trial which is twice as long as other offers that I have seen.
Joining the DVD Rental club was easy. From the main page click the See All Categories tab. Under Movies is an option for DVD Rental which will bring you to the DVD rental page. The link to the DVD Rental page is: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=5430&path=0:5430
DVD rental requires mebership. The trial will give you 30 days for free which will be plenty of time to determine if it’s the best choice for you. Your credit card is placed on file when signing up and the monthly fee is charged to your credit card automatically each month until you cancel the program.
During the trial period you will be allowed to have 2 DVD’s out at once. The 2-DVD plan is $12.97 a month. If you need more DVD’s out you can upgrade after your trial. 3 DVD’s is $17.36 a month, 4 DVD’s is 21.94 a month.
Once you enroll you can start looking through their DVDs and add movies to your list that you want to watch as you go. Wal-Mart will ship the first two movies on your list. You have as much time as you want to watch the movies. You can return the movie the next day or hold it for a week because you are paying for a service, not for individual rentals.
I signed up for the DVD Rental on Sunday and received my first DVD in the mail Thursday. I live in Florida and the DVD came from Georgia which indicated to me right away that the club would not beat the delivery time in my area since Netflix ships to me from my own town. The Wal-Mart distribution center in Georgia is quicker to deliver to me than Blockbuster which is in my same state just 4 hours away. I thought the club was pretty good but one of my peeves on DVD rentals is scratched DVDs. The scratches started with my 3rd DVD I received from Wal-Mart so no improvement in that area. I also was unable to find some movies I wanted to see from the start and it wasn’t until after I signed up that I realized their selection was smaller than what I am use to. Everyone will have a different experience with how long the DVDs are in the mail. I have found their turn-around time from their warehouse in Georgia to be fairly quick and accurate with timely status emails.
The DVD arrives in a paper envelope which is designed to be the pre-paid return mailer as well. You will only find the DVD in the sleeve, no description or pictures.
Once you are finished with the movie you simply repackage it in the pre-paid envelope and put it in any outgoing mailbox. Wal-Mart will send out another DVD to you once they receive the previous one.
Wal-Mart does a great job of getting the movies back out however their distribution centers may not be in as many places which may make for a slower service experience for some. My turnaround time has been 3-4 days each way. I am also disappointed with their choices of movies. Netflix has 35,000 choices and Blockbuster has 30,000. Wal-Mart is only offering 17,000 movies. I have found that Wal-Mart was missing many of the movies that I wanted to rent in the exercise department. They seem to have all of the recently released movies.
The 30-day trial is entirely free as long as you cancel within that time frame. If you are interested but not sure I’d suggest signing up for the trial because 30 days is plenty of time to determine if you’re interested in their service and how fast the movies will arrive to your location.
Wal-Mart Photo
Wal-Mart Photo was another great service that I ran across that I found to be better than some other online film developing services*. My experience is with pictures taken with my digital camera. I uploaded my .jpg images on their website, ordered my prints, and went to my local Wal-Mart to pick them up an hour later (not available in all locations). In an effort to get pictures of the kids out to the grandparents quickly and save some money in the process I have also uploaded my prints from my house and arranged pick-up at their local Wal-Mart over 1,000 miles away. This saves me lots of shipping charges and they also get the prints earlier than through the mail. I have also had the prints mailed form their website with equally favorable results.
Once photos are uploaded they can be cropped or edited. You can also share the online photo album with others over the internet, in addition to ordering prints. Prints are guaranteed, if you are not happy with prints they can be returned in the store or by mail for a full return.
I haven’t tried their photos on gifts yet however it does sound promising. Personal photos can be printed onto things such as coffee mugs, t-shirts, calendars, magnets, posters, mouse pads, and cards. These items can also be picked up at the store which will definitely save on shipping costs.
*Excluding Ofoto which has better print quality in my opinion.
Pharmacy
I love the system that Wal-Mart has in place; all of the aspects of getting a new prescription can be done online. Once you have a prescription established with Wal-Mart you can order a refill from the online website or transfer your prescription from another Pharmacy to Wal-Mart through their online request form. The best benefit of having your prescription logged through the internet is that you can see your history and set up e-mail alerts to remind you to refill a prescription. Their website also has detailed information about the drug that may be of interest to you such as what it is used for, who should not take it, what to do if you miss a dose, side effects, how to store it, anything you can think of it’s listed there. The website can also create a report of drug and food interactions that can reduce the effectiveness or be dangerous to use with the medicine. It goes even further by marking the risks with severity such as a low blue warning or a red high warning. The drug information can be accessed even if you do not have a current prescription with Wal-Mart.
Shop for Vacations
Did you know that you can put your vacation on Layaway? Unbelievable…yet so tempting. I will just quote this from the Wal-Mart website because I haven’t used this service…YET!
“Just place a deposit on your Wal-Mart Travel cruise and make payments as often as you like. Final payment is due 70 days before the departure. Book a cruise online or call 1-800-288-6030 for more information.”
You can shop by destination, cruise line, or deals. The prices are guaranteed to be competitive. In addition to cruises you can also search for other vacations and honeymoon packages. I was happy to see the feedback stars for each of these trips. There is a set of stars from “Experts” and a set of stars for “customers” who have taken these vacations which will save time in your research.
Even More!
There are even more things on their website that I haven’t tried yet such as the Gift Registry for all occasions. There are online Financial Services which has everything from reading information, credit and banking. You can order lenses through the Optical Center or research and buy tires through the Tire Center. You can even order a wedding ring through the Jewelry Department. If you’re looking for a gift for someone who has it all try searching for gift basket.
What they don’t have
The list of what the online store does not have is a much shorter list than what they do have. There are still things that the brick and mortar Wal-Mart stores sell that you won’t find online such as food items. I didn’t find any bath and beauty supplies such as shampoo, toothpaste, or make-up. I couldn’t find some school supplies such as notebook paper, pens and pencils. There were other things that I searched for such as cake pan but it didn’t come up with any results. When I went to the baking section I did find a cake pan.
Another bummer is that you’ll find that they’re not tax-free like some on-line retailers. If there is a brick and mortar store in your state then you “get” to pay sales tax.
Overall
Overall I have found Wal-Mart.com to be a pretty good site. I try shopping elsewhere to give the underdog a chance but I often end up ordering from Wal-Mart because they’re cheaper. Sometimes the site becomes overwhelming because there are so many items to choose from and their store searches do not always produce accurate results. There are so many options online all priced competitively. The shipping prices are reasonable, the return policy is excellent, and they have a Fortune #1 company reputation.
Recommended:
Yes
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? DVD Rental / Photos / Toys
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xyzwyatt
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Location: Nashville, TN
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