“How bad can Wal-Mart make its web site? …Not only is it DRM infected but it is so badly broken in Firefox I can’t see enough of it to figure out what is broken,” Charlie Demerjian reports for The Inquirer.
“This is an embarrassment of awfulness, any teacher would flunk a first time HTML student for turning in a basic assignment that looked like this, much less a real web site,” Demerjian writes.
Demerjian writes, “You have to question if it tested this at all. There is a ‘beta’ tag that you can see near the top, but even Microsoft wouldn’t dare do this in public.”
Full article, with screenshot of Wal-Mart’s jumbled mess of a site in Firefox, here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Come now, Mr. Demerjian, deeming any company’s software testing as worse than Microsoft’s is hitting way below the belt. 
And Wal-Mart’s brick and mortar stores do have some merit at least: they’re excellent places to catch free freak shows at any time of the day or night.
Related article:
Wal-Mart excludes Mac and iPod users with new low-res TV show, movie download store – February 06, 2007
There will be a lot of “big box” Walmart bashing in this forum, but the topic is how badly programmed their web page is.
Tom Cruise (the new way of saying J.C.’s name in vain) that is embarrassing.
Plus, their video encoding sucks too.
Incase you are thinking of posting…piss off Zune Tang…
What’s really funny about this – I haven’t had time to try it in Firefox (Mac), but even though it’s non-functional on a Mac, the (opening) page renders just fine in Safari.
Safari displays it OK, but Camino makes the same mess out of it as Demerjian experienced.
MW: man. Man, oh man, what were they thinking?
I went to a freak show once.
Lol – even the ‘Unsupported Browser or Operating System’ box that appears in Safari when to try to buy something is off the screen and not big enough to contain the message it’s supposed to display!
Oh dear, oh dear.
Way to alienate millions of possible website viewers and Mac users there, MDN. “Freak shows”? Wow. I shop at Wal-Mart. Am I a freak, too?
Behold the bigotry of Mac users.
“but even Microsoft wouldn’t dare do this in public”
OUCH! That’s gonna leave a mark.
That could be the very best coding possible coming out of Bentonville. They probably interviewed twenty web designers and hired the lowest bidder – enough change for breakfast at Waffle House after the interview. Plus a tip.
MW: fact
So, an old movie, such as Ice Age, costs $15 but I can go into Target and get the DVD for less than that. I thought Wal-Mart was supposed to be the king of retail but it appears that they don’t even understand basic consumer economics. I have no problem with Wal-Mart but downloads should cost less, not more, than the physical DVD copy.
MDN, a lot of people — including my sister with 4 kids — shop at Wal-Mart because there prices are so low and they need to in order to make end’s meet. Consider them “freaks” huh?
Well, I have one message for you, MDN:
Goodbye.
I’ll get my Mac news elsewhere.
Works (almost) fine in Safari and Opera 8.51.
Camino looks the same mess as Firefox.
MDN,
YOU have become too arrogant.
Watch your back.
“Wow. I shop at Wal-Mart. Am I a freak, too?”
Absolutely, Chris. But it has nothing to do with your shopping habits.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”red face” style=”border:0;” /> Wait, don’t! (j/k)
Explain the late Saturday nights with live chickens and a trunkful of candles and canola oil.
– Mindless Mac Bigot and Proud of It
MDN weren’t implying that everyone who shops at wal-mart is a freak – just that there is a regular stream of freaks who do shop there.
Ok it’s not pretty but you have to understand
only 4 of our customers have computers and only 2
have highspeed until the Comcast deal expires.
The only movie they are downloading is Dukes of Hazard.
Love that Jessica!!!
Yeha chill out or I’ll drop a pallet on you.
Waltech/pop machine fillers
P.S. I occasionally shop at Wal-Mart. I wouldn’t be surprised if I was considered part of the freak show. Where else can you get 500 safety pins at three in the morning? (Um, I had a coupon.)
Come on everybody, this is Wal-Mart’s first stab at the downloadable video market. Give ’em a break.
Who doesn’t want to see Wal-Mart exclusives like “Reba” and “The Billy Ray Cyrus Christmas Special?” I applaud Wal-Mart for delivering such great content at such low prices!
If it’s one thing us Window PC fans love it’s low-cost, inexpensive, cheap products and services. That’s what makes Windows PCs so much better than your glitzy high-cost Macs. There are more Windows PCs out there, so they’re better, and they cost less, so again, they’re better. I’ll break it down for you Mac dorks: More at a lower cost.
Can’t wait to subscribe to the “Fishing with NASCAR All Stars” exclusive, and for the kids, “Strawberry Shortcake Meets the Smurfs on Mars” special. Wal-Mart has a knack for taking it up a notch. I can’t wait.
Your potential. Our passion.
Yikes! As a web designer I would never post such a site even as a beta for my client to see. In Safari, the graphics and text at the top left are mucked up: text over text and a missing image. I’ve tried clicking on the Category and Studio links. All I get is a spinning “Loading” wheel. It never stops. In FireFox and Camino it’s a disaster. I refuse to open IE.
What were they thinking? Oh, sorry, they’re weren’t!
Looks pretty good in Safari, except for the banner at the top is broken.
Note, also, that the Inquirer’s comment web page is broken in Safari.
Bozos
To War,
“So, an old movie, such as Ice Age, costs $15 but I can go into Target and get the DVD for less than that. I thought Wal-Mart was supposed to be the king of retail but it appears that they don’t even understand basic consumer economics. I have no problem with Wal-Mart but downloads should cost less, not more, than the physical DVD copy.”
Walmart is on the beginning of a long downhill slide. No one is in charge that really cares about the company and its people. When Sam died and then his son, the jackels took over. All they care about is their exectutive bonuses.
Yea, Walmart uses its size to beat price drops out of suppliers, but it used to work with them to get better prices, now it just beats them. Same with video and audio downloading. If they can get someone else to run the show, they think they get off cheap. Walmart, slowly dying mega creature. 🙁
PS, in many stores, vendors like coke etc have to stock the shelves themselves. OK, some of it makes sense cause they can monitor useage, but then the execs get into the show and it becomes about saving Walmart money and the crap starts.
Just rambling today.
N.
…”they’re excellent places to catch free freak shows at any time of the day or night.”
LOL!
You know, I thought it was just me that thought strange-looking people came out of the wood-work to shop at Wal-Mart.
So I broke down and tried (I say tried) to view it in IE. No go. It’s actually worse in the old clunker that Mac users are stuck with than in Safari. Their CSS works better in Safari. I was even unable to order a download in IE. There are no previews available. In Safari, there is a shop by category listing on the left. That doesn’t even shop up in IE. Clicking on any categories on IE doesn’t work either.
LOL! What a pile of Sh!t!
No movies in any browser and no matter if it did work, the product won’t play on the iPod. It’s like a gas station that only sells gas to Jugos! And the pumps are turned off! What a disaster. This is not a Beta; this is an OMEGA!!
Don: “MDN, a lot of people — including my sister with 4 kids — shop at Wal-Mart because there prices are so low and they need to in order to make end’s meet. Consider them “freaks” huh?”
Well, maybe if she hadn’t HAD four kids (or any) they could make ends meet w/o going to the Wal-(expletive deleted)-Mart.
“This is not a Beta; this is an OMEGA!!”
Good one!
Would that make Longhorn/Vista a Mu?
@ Chris Weinke, Are you seriously pigeon holing all Mac users because of one Mac users comments? What a small mided JACKA$$…