Maybe don't buy supplements or anything at Walmart

[ironfist]

I've heard that Walmart sells lower quality variants of regular products. There are some articles online that support this. Please note I'm not talking about when they have another item number that is very similar to the real thing. I'm talking about same item number.

Anyway, I have been using Neocell collagen.

I recently bought a smaller package at Walmart. It was like half the size and half the cost. Walmart is the only place who sells this version.

When I opened it, it looked different. The powder was bigger and the color was different.

This made me wonder if Walmart sells worse quality supplements, even of the same brand?

Large supplement retailer left, aforementioned version right. Difference is more noticeable IRL:

 

[Thalgo]

Maybe they repackage near expiration date/expired legit products or they sell lower quality batches at a lower price to walmart

 

[I'm.No.One]

Walmart doesn't do anything but buy products from retailers who approach them.

They're simply buying whatever stock is available to fulfill a purchase contact.

So, if they're getting lesser quality it's coming from the brand that's sending them stock.

 

[Pablo Cruise]

Walmart doesn't do anything but buy products from retailers who approach them.

They're simply buying whatever stock is available to fulfill a purchase contact.

So, if they're getting lesser quality it's coming from the brand that's sending them stock.

I use to buy some supplements at Walmart but found 90% made in China. I only buy quality supplements bc there is no requirements for quality and some have been reported to be 50-60% of stated potency. You pay for junk and get junk?

 

[I'm.No.One]

I use to buy some supplements at Walmart but found 90% made in China. I only buy quality supplements bc there is no requirements for quality and some have been reported to be 50-60% of stated potency. You pay for junk and get junk?

I wasn't defending Walmart. I was merely pointing out that Walmart is just stalking what people are selling to them. They aren't the ones making it a poor quality, the brands are.

 

[Pablo Cruise]

Of course you were not defending Walmart neither was I. They sell junk vitamins and you get what you pay for. If they can't control the quality I am not going to defend their suppliers. My daughter does functional medicine. She knows the good brands, seek them out and better to buy on line than your vitamin shop. There are too many for me list but will say Douglas, Thorne, Nature Made (USP graded), Klaire, Integrative, Metagenics are just a few and worth the expense IMHO. As an aside there is reason to believe there are benefits to supplements but a story for another day.

 

[amd]

"Amazon has been making headlines lately due to surges in counterfeits, imitation merchants, and elaborate fake review scams. It seems as though this giant got too big for its britches and can’t keep these under control.

There are countless stories of ruined livelihoods of small business owners due to counterfeit shops that sell knock offs of their products. Even when these counterfeit shops are reported to Amazon and taken down (which doesn’t always happen), a new one can just as easily pop up.

Sadly enough, even “verified sellers” aren’t always reliable since they are sometimes found to be unscrupulous. My friend who sells professional products told me about how a counterfeit claimed her authentic store was the fraud and the real store was shut down – what a mess!

Another concern is most things you buy online from mass retailers come from a large warehouses and not from the manufacturer itself. This has huge implications for anything with an expiration date or that requires climate controlled environment for potency, like probiotics."

 

[I'm.No.One]

"Amazon has been making headlines lately due to surges in counterfeits, imitation merchants, and elaborate fake review scams. It seems as though this giant got too big for its britches and can’t keep these under control.

There are countless stories of ruined livelihoods of small business owners due to counterfeit shops that sell knock offs of their products. Even when these counterfeit shops are reported to Amazon and taken down (which doesn’t always happen), a new one can just as easily pop up.

Sadly enough, even “verified sellers” aren’t always reliable since they are sometimes found to be unscrupulous. My friend who sells professional products told me about how a counterfeit claimed her authentic store was the fraud and the real store was shut down – what a mess!

Another concern is most things you buy online from mass retailers come from a large warehouses and not from the manufacturer itself. This has huge implications for anything with an expiration date or that requires climate controlled environment for potency, like probiotics."

Unless a company has taken on the daunting task of also running a ship fulfillment company even when you buy directly from the retailer it's not actually being shipped through them.

Our business uses a ship fulfillment company however the facilities we utilize are cGMP/FDA inspected quarterly.

Most of these places have the capacity to track batch/lot numbers, ship FIFO (first in first out) to prevent items from expiring, & have temp controlled portions of said warehouse depending on your needs.

Of course they can just hire sh!tty places too & or use an Amazon warehouse.

Also, you can buy stuff off of Amazon and that doesn't mean it's shipped from an Amazon warehouse. Many places just have an order interface that tells their ship fulfillment company they got an order.

Anyhow fakes are for sure an issue but a lot of times I see people just not having any real knowledge of how e-commerce retail functions because they don't have any real experience with it.