The Raiders of the Lost Walmart are a brave band of explorers who comb the nation’s big box stores for comically outdated, yet still overpriced, merchandise. This is mostly electronics, since they don’t age very well, and today we have two not-so-fine selections from Walmart and from Kmart.
Sean writes that he enjoys combing the clearance section at Walmart to look for comically overpriced items, but had never seen anything wacky enough to submit until last week. He spotted this device on the clearance shelf at his local Walmart.
The thing is, this device is still useful for some people: the state of rural broadband is such that there are still a lot of people using dialup. It’s not a relic of the ’90s, like people in more densely populated areas think it is.
The note on the package that the device is compatible with phone service via cable is interesting, too, since the current heavy marketing of “triple play” packages means that if someone has phone service from their cable provider, they have broadband. Still, they might need to use some kind of legacy dialup system.
This photo that Michael took at Kmart wouldn’t have been too unusual four or five years ago, but a 5-year-old device at full price looks rather odd now.
Amazon still has it available for $27.99, but with a string of one-star reviews declaring it to be “absolute garbage” and “dollar store junk.” Good luck unloading it, Kmart.
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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