Personally, I wouldn't do the manipulate Walmart thing but I also won't hold it against someone who does it. It's unethical on the small scale like going 5 or 10mph faster that the posted speed limit on the expressway. Now manipulating a business for financial profit or to hurt the business is big on my unethical scale as is speeding through a residential neighborhood.

Now the question is that will the manipulating of Walmart for restocking puposes lead a person to commit bigger and less ethical acts? If so, then I think that person is pre-dispositioned to be a bad egg anyway. I go faster than the posted speed limit on expressways and highways, but not in residential neighborhoods. I found a $50 bill in an empty parking space beind my car in a Lowes parking lot, I kept it. I found a wallet with a few hundred dollars in it in a parking space that I pulled next to at a paint store I frequent. I brought the wallet (still with all the money) into the paint store for them to figure out who might have just left the store and dropped their wallet.

I can't say that we are better or worse off ethically as a nation than we were fifty years ago. Maybe there are shifts where we are more ethical in some areas and less in others? Speaking of which, if anyone wants to get a dose of some moral/ethical differences between 1960 and now, check out my post on the Media section on the TV show on AMC called MadMen. I provided a link to the AMC page for the show and you can read all about the show and the reviews (huge raving reviews by the way) and such. In watching that show, you will see some major differences and advances between 1960 and now. While some things have shifted ethically, I think we've made some advances in some areas anyway.

I think your average citizen breaks more laws now and acts far more unethical than the average Joe of the 60's. I could be wrong but the sheer volume of flagrant lawlessness I encounter daily being perpetrated by good people is astounding.

I think Walmart but sucks, but that doesn't give me the right to be just as crappy.

Uh-Huh, Yea I hope that didn't come out like you thought.

Perhaps, but there are probably a whole lot more ways opportunities to break laws and be unethical now than there were back then.

I agree with GrungeBob that people seem more desensitized to unethical behavior these days. (There's a whole lot of unethical behavior from certain people *cough-white-house* that people seem desensitized to....)

I think it would solve your woes to buy from Hasbrotoyshop.com where waves 1, 2, and 4 boosters are 7.99.

If you use SPTIER07 code, you get
$10 off of $50 purchase
$20 off of $100 purchase
$50 off of $250 purchase.

This usually works out to cancel out shipping, tax, and a few pennies off of that.

In combination orders with other heroscapers, I got 6 boosters and marvel heroscape for $76.11

(Thus avoiding the Wal-mart mess, and on top of that, saving money on HeroCrack you're going to buy anyways!)

Re: Manipulating the Wal-Mart system
 

This sounds like a good idea. Other options are to buy them as gifts to people who don't own any heroscape(Though giving a masterset with the expansions would also be nice) Or selling the un-opened packages on E-Bay. as for the dishonesty of redistributing across different wal-mart stores? What is the inherent deception of buying something that you do not intend to keep? Or is it the returning it to them rather that going with re-selling it online that the dishonesty lies in?

Re: Manipulating the Wal-Mart system
 

This has been discussed on these boards a lot. I've done it, it does work, but some folks find it dishonest or crooked or whatever. I say try it, what's the worst that could happen?

I don't find this to be unethical at all. I'm not stealing, I'm in no way lying about my intentions, and I'm not forging anything. If anybody takes the time to ask me why I'm returning the items (which they only have once) I tell them honestly and without hesitation. If I lied about my intentions or somehow cheated the sytem I would find that unethical, but I pay for the items legally and return the items legally and don't speak any falsehoods during the whole process.

Just be aware that you may have to repeat the process a couple times....some WM's store a complete restock in the back of the store and will put theat out before they need to reorder.


edit: I've been thinking about this whole thing and wanted to run a few scenarios (that all describe actions by me or folks I know) by the community...let me know which you view as unethical and which you are okay with. I ask because I am geuninely baffled by the cries of unethical actions over this buy and return plan.

1. A buddy of mine and his wife were redoing thier bathroom. The wife is not a very visual person, so repeated trips to the hardware store with paint chips and tile samples in hand weren't making an impact on her. She just couldn't visualize how the new towelbars would look in her room. So her husband went to the store, bought six different sets of towel bar, borught them home, and held each one up to the wall. In other words he bought six items knowing that he would return at least five of them. Is that wrong?

2. An ex-girlfriend of mine hated to try on clothes in the store. She would frequently buy an item in her size, one size bigger, and one size smaller. She would then try them on at home and return the ones that didn't fit. Is that wrong?

3. When TRU was running their twofer sale, I called up my local Target and asked if they would price match on a receipt that I had....either by giving me second of the item or by halving the price. The store manager said they would not price match but that I could return the item. I said I had already opened it. He told me to buy the item at TRU using the twofer sale and to return one of the unopened items to him...because it was the exact same item it would be fine. He said I could do that with any items I'd purchased in the previous 90 days, so long as I had a receipt. My local WM manager said I could not do that, but when I told her Targt allowed it she said okay. I did so, managing to double a large portion of my collection at the time for no additional charge, then posted about it back on Heroscapers HQ, and was basically called the devil. Do folks still feel that way? Is that wrong?

4. My parents bought me a CD from FYE for Christmas a couple years ago. I already owned the CD, so I returned it to FYE without a receipt and ended up with a different CD and some store credit. Is that wrong?

5. I bought a rather expensive item at a store recently, then the price dropped (a lot) a week after I'd purchased it. I went to the store and complained, saying that they had to know they were going to reduce the price, and they told me there was nothing they could do. I called their home office and complained, and again they told me there was nothing they could do. I was quite irritated and bought the same item again and returned it using the older receipt. Is that wrong?

6. A friend of mine recently found a great deal on printer cartridges at an office supply store that happened to be quite a drive from his home. He took the ad to another, much closer, store of a different chain and asked them if they could do a price match. They refused, telling him they didn't match sale prices, only normal prices. He told them he would just buy the cartridges at the other store then, taking his business elsewhere. The store manager overheard and overrode the policy, matching the price to keep his business. Was that wrong?

7. A neighbor of mine signs up for store credit cards to get the initital discount (often 10-25%) then never uses the card again and cancels it as soon as possible, prefering to use his AMEX card to get travel points. Is that wrong?

8. Recently, Best Buy ran a deal where if you bought any DVD in the store you got a free ticket to see "300." I went to the store on my way to see the movie and searched around for a few moments until I found a DVD that was cheaper than the cost of the movie ticket. I bought it, reducing my movie-going cost by a few bucks. I later sold the DVD to a used store. Was that wrong? On a similar note, Chef Boyardee used to runa deal where you sent in can labels to get free movie tickets.....the Chef Boyardee was cheaper than the movie ticket (by a rather large margin) so I used to buy it, send in the labels, get my free tickets, and then donate the food to a local food bank. Was that wrong?

9. Final example....my local Gamestop, years ago, ran a deal where if you traded in ANY two used non-sport games you got a copy of a hot new game (I forget which one it was but htink it might have been a Splinter Cell title) for 30 bucks instead of the usual 50. I scoured the store's used game bins to find the two crappiest cheapest games, bought them for a total of about 9 dollars, and traded them in the next day for my $20 discount on the new game. Is that wrong?

Please offer your input here....this whole WM thing really baffles me and so I want to know what folks think of other transactions in which the dealings are more complicated than just taking cash, handing it to the store clerk, and walking out with an item. It seems by some of the reactions that anything more elaborate than that is the devil's own tool.

Like jcb231, I also have one that I would like peoples' opinion on.

My wife does mystery shopping. A company will email her or post a job to evaluate a local store. She will accept the job. She will go to a store, buy an item, observe the quality of customer service, observe the cleanliness of the store, etc. She then submits a report describing these factors and sends a copy of the receipt to the company that does the mystery shops. The companies that do this usually will reimburse her for the item she purchased and pay her $5 to $50 depending upon the shop (store, whether it has been bounused, etc). For stores she frequently buys from, the purchase is no big deal (e.g. she will go to Target and do grocery shopping or buy some clothes from Old Navy for my daughter)but sometimes the companies who do this want her to go to Babies R Us or another store that we would never buy something from. We simply do not use or need the merchandise they sell. She will make a purchase, perform the observation, submit the paperwork, and get paid. Then she will return the merchandise. What are peoples' thoughts on this?

Re: Manipulating the Wal-Mart system
 

Yes your ripping them off of $11.

Re: Manipulating the Wal-Mart system
 

Care to elaborate? How so? Their ad said I could trade in ANY two used non-sport games. I did that and received my discount. How is it a rip off? I really want to know.