While we're on the subject of X-mart, let me tell you another story about them.

I work for a consumer products company and Wal-Mart accounts for 40% of our sales. Being in control of such a large volume of our business means WM can force us to do some...interesting...things.

The main thing WM does is they set the price they will buy your product for. For example, they may say "We'll buy this box of sandwich bags for $1.20 and sell it for $1.40." We say "But our costs are $1.20 to produce it. We can't make a profit." They say "Fine, sell to someone else then."

So what do we do? We make a special "Wal-mart" version of the product in order to reduce our costs and sell to them at $1.20. The bag is thinner, the seals are poorer, and plastic used is inferior. But you, the consumer may not know this unless you look VERY closely at the packaging.

OK, not a very big deal, as it's only a sandwich bag. But we're not the only ones who do this. Virtually every supplier to Wal-Mart has a cheaper, lower quality version of their product that looks almost identical to the product you'd buy elsewhere but has noteable differences. Think about this next time you consider buying a TV, stereo, power tool, or computer from your local WM.

There's a reason WM is cheaper.