The price is heavily cut, about half. Wal-mart attempted a foray into the high end bike business a few years back, and it has seemingly not gone so well for them - they've still got stock leftover from the very first (and I believe also the only) year that they made these bikes. Nothing to complain about I guess, the bike industry gets to breathe easier, a few people will get a very good deal on some bikes and the manufacturer making the frames probably just kept making them for someone else, with different stickers on them.

Regarding buying a bike from a company that's doing a "damn good job keeping people out of work", consider that the majority of large bicycle manufacturers outsource their product to begin with. Wal-mart might be a big player in the outsourcing game, but they're hardly the only one, and the cycling industry is rife with the same practices. It's business as usual.