Originally Posted By: oldsoldier
I had heard somewhere that the products large chains, such as Walmart, put on their shelves, although may have the same name as the product in another, smaller store-they are, in fact, seconds.

Martin touched on one explanation--that stores like Wal-Mart sell so much volume that they can actually force manufacturers to make their products cheapers (usually inferior quality).

But I don't believe Wal-Mart actually sells "seconds" although there are stores with such business models--selling discontinued models, production overruns, products with a tiny labeling defect, etc. I can't think of the names of supermarket-type stores like this off the top of my head, but Big Lots is an example of a general merchandise company like this.