Inappropriate recommendations at always low prices
Though I'm not sure how often anyone utilizes the feature, many online shopping sites like Amazon provide recommendations based on other purchases by customers. Wal-Mart decided they'd do something radical and make attempts at customer service, implementing a similar system on their site.
Oops.
It seems that the site linked the film Planet of the Apes to "similar items" such as movies about Martin Luther King, Jack Johnson and Tina Turner.
While I would certainly love to take any chance possible to poke fun at Wal-Mart, I have a feeling this was a very unfortunate coincidence. A Wal-Mart spokesperson said that the system obviously had many glitches, providing that movies such as Home Alone were also linking to African American-themed films. The company has removed the recommendations feature on their site.
I think this is less an example of some sort of racist conspiracy as it is an example of poor programming and testing. Coupled with the failure of their online video-rental venture, it seems that Wal-Mart isn't putting forth much of an effort into the Internet portion of their company. The site seems to me a virtual representation of their palette-choked, disorganized aisles (though I still think bigger sites like Amazon are pretty hard on the eyes). It's as if the existence of their site has very little to do with a potential for increased sales and more to do with, well, what's this blog called again?
Posted by Joel at 1/09/2006 12:18:00 AM
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