Originally Posted by Doug5150

Wal-mart doesn't really "assemble" bikes as much as you think they might. ("Well, sure!" you're saying, but that's not what I meant)

If you order a bicycle from them (such as, a cheapo for a cut-up donor, to build into something else) and choose not to have them assemble it for you--then when you go to pick it up at the store it is still packed inside the box, and you get to see what assembly there is to do.
Usually it is two things:
1--the handlebars+stem are taken out and zip-tied to the side of the front triangle/top tube. All the brake & shifter cables are already attached, and operational.
2--the front wheel is not in the forks, and there is a plastic spacer keeping the fork blades apart.

That's it.
The wal-mart people generally don't do any other assembly or adjusting, and they're not supposed to need to. In most cases, they aren't even allowed to. They are not trained as bicycle mechanics, and aren't supposed to act like they are. Something like a flipped crank seems pretty darned obvious, but it's probable that they didn't have the tool on hand for removing a crank-arm.

I don't defend wal-mart much, I tend to hold the view that most of what you find there is sub-standard merchandise.
Sometimes substandard works well enough though, if the price is right enough.
When it comes to the bicycles however, a factory in China is what did the assembly--proper or otherwise.