• Just when you thought it was safe to put on your bargain price flip-flops from Wal-Mart........

After reading Kelly Stiles story (and numerous others), I have to say its making me think twice about my loyalty to Wal-mart, if not at least question the purchase of products from China. This is not the first negative thing I've heard about Wal-Mart. I'm sure there are entire websites that could be written (if not all ready) by disgruntled employees who were not treated well, the fact that they are non-union, and frankly some of the worst customer service in the land of retail. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into Wal-Mart and had a question while roaming the store and had to walk halfway around the store before finding an actual employee, (let alone one who knew what they were doing) I have no reason to think that Kelly's experience is far-fetched as I have worked in retail and know how big headed management can get. She mentions how rude the GM was at her local store and treated her like "the bad guy". No surprise there. Typical of how most management I've been around act like. In fact she has an email from a former manager of Wal-Mart that states

"I used to be a manger with Wal-Mart and I can tell you as you have well figured out by this time that management and the HR departments are actually trained and taught to shift blame and to try to use confusing tactics to get people to NOT fill out incident reports since any incidents are actually charged to the store and not Wal-Mart directly."

How sad is that? The store itself is the one charged initially. It's always the low end of the totem pole that gets dumped on in the land of corporations.

If you look at Kelly's website it shows very graphic pics of her wounds from the flip-flops. Now I'm no Doctor and don't claim to be an expert but rashes typically spread and looking at these pictures I cant believe this is a rash or "contact dermatitis" as one Doctor put, but a burn, as the injured skin didn't spread past the impression of the straps from the flip-flops. Poor girl doesn't even have insurance, so I feel for her even more. Wal-Mart could have at least offered to pay for her Dr visits and treatment up front. All though they probably couldn't because that would automatically make them look responsible. (Which I believe they are) Doesn't look like they've taken any responsibility other than removing the shoes from the shelves of which they took there sweet time to do apparently. I mean at what point do you say okay Wal-mart you are responsible for this woman (and many others) pain and suffering. Here are my thoughts.

• Did they manufacture the shoes themselves? No
• Did they wear the shoes themselves or have several test studies done? Not likely, I mean who ever thought you would need research done on flip-flops?
• Why did Wal-mart only remove the flip-flops from their shelves and not recall the product as well? Does this mean they might put them back on the shelves if they don't think the evidence is sufficient, or if Kerry Stiles lawsuit fails. Well let me reiterate that I have yet to find any proof that they did an ACTUAL recall. Only that they removed the product from their shelves to conduct their own studies they've stated. What are the results of their studies if any have been done one wonders?
• Ultimately who is really at fault here? Wal-Mart for selling a toxic product, or China for manufacturing it? Should they both be held accountable?
• Why is Wal-Mart stating only 10 people have claimed a problem with the shoes, when clearly Kerry's website has many more affected.
• Another note, there is apparantly more than one brand of shoes that are causing these reactions. "No Boundaries" is one of the other that I'm aware of. Sand-n-sun is the one in question. There may be more.
• In fact Kerry received an interesting email with photos from a former employee that show his hands are affected with similar reactions people have had on their feet. His arms & chest also "broke out". Why? Because he was in charge of stocking many different pairs of shoes at Wal-Mart.

I don't know where I'm at with shopping all together at Wal-Mart. I know I won't be buying shoes from them anytime soon, and I'll definately think twice before I buy products "made in China" (read my hub to find out more). The problem where I live is that I have limited choices for a "one stop shopping" convience. I have two small children and a small budget, so the less stores I can go to in one day the better. Wal-Mart is a very convient and low priced store that has worked for my hectic lifestyle. But at the same time I don't want to condone their lack of ethics. I think the best choice would be to just tell Wal-Mart myself how I feel and hopefully they will listen. What do you think?