Friday, July 20, 2007

Attack of the Killer Plastic Thongs

OK. Several people have e-mailed this to me - the story about the woman who got her feet horribly scarred by Chinese flip-flips she bought at Wal-Mart.

Click here for her story - complete with photos, horrible grammar and some atrocious spelling. Here's a tip: People tend to treat you less like a crazy person if you know how to use the English language.

Click here for reaction to the story over at web site The Consumerist. Poor girl is taking a beating.

I have this vision of a woman with short-shorts, a crop top and crusty feet wobbling into a Wal-Mart and waving around a nasty pair of flip-flops and cussing out a manager "because your stupid crappy shoes made my poor tender feet all scarred up." PS: Do you think she had the receipt? Didn't see a scan of that.

Get that picture and try to decide if you think she's working with a full deck or not?

Here are my thoughts:

1. You get what you pay for. As a consumer, you spend years and years patronizing Wal-Mart and then act shocked when the cheap Chinese crap rises up to bite you in the ... foot.
2. I feel sorry for this girl, but I call foul. I find it hard to believe that wearing the shoes off and on for a few minutes at a time since April would cause massive chemical burns in July.
3. You're stupid. REALLY. IF THE SHOES MADE YOUR FEET FEEL TINGLY TAKE THEM OFF. And don't put them back on. I wonder if she sticks forks into electrical sockets for kicks?
4. This looks like TV. Does anyone else think this resembles the episode of "House" where the jeans got dosed with pesticide?
5. Another foul. If your feet are turning red, why did you not seek medical attention immediately? Poor or not, chemical burns would send me running for the ER.
6. Problems for Wal-Mart. There's obviously something wrong with the shoes. Either in the manufacture or the shipping.
7. Refer to Number 1. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. Really. Don't act shocked when $2.88 plastic crap tries to kill you. Be glad it wasn't medicine.
8. Any more killer flip-flops out there? Why haven't we heard more about an epidemic of Killer Plastic Thongs? I'll look for them this weekend and see if we are selling any - although we are transitioning to Back to School now.

Do you think she still shops at Wal-Mart? I'll take 10-1 odds she still does. Any takers?

23 comments:

R.B. said...

Hold on a sec-- she bought merchandise that injured her in a rather gruesome way, so whether or not she is stupid, no one is dumb enough to chemically injure themselves with flip-flops. I think if there's an apparent problem with a product, the company should do *something* about it. Plus, if it was only worth less than $3, it probably won't put too much of a dent in their revenue. I like your jerkiness, but try to have a little decency when it comes to a human being's health. Freaking chemical burns!

Kayitlen said...

This comment has NOTHING to do with the post :) I did want to let you know that I have been reading your blog for the last couple of days (I found it by accident while searching for something). I have been laughing so hard. Your writing style is fantastic and I've really, really enjoyed your "take" on things. I'm in New Zealand so we don't have a Walmart (we have an even cheaper version, a Warehouse - which makes Walmart look like a palace!). I don't know how you keep your sanity - but I really hope you never quit your job because I'm enjoying the writings so much! Oh and I did notice you like foreign movies, shows, that are to the culture of the country. Have you ever seen Once There Were Warriors (a NZ movie) and of course our very own soap - Shortland Street? If you ever want to see these, let me know, I can burn them to a dvd for you :)

Anonymous said...

Of course she still shops there. They have the cheapest price on hamburger helper in town. Duh.

DolfanDad said...

wahaah stop being so jerky! Why do you have to make fun of her! wahahah she's my sister.

-mitch and brown

All those pictures do is document the fact that she noticed something wrong going AND KEPT ON WEARING THE STUPID THINGS!! Its like the simpsons where the pimply faced hamburger workers is getting homer fries and says "whoops, I dropped your fries in the deep fryer. I'll get them...AHHH....I'll get them....AHHH....I'll get them....AHHH"

Its called the darwin awards and she is now a nominee!

weas said...

And to think that I complained about my feet hurting after a week worth of work - geez! I'm glad I don't wear flipflops any more!

Anonymous said...

Can you say Contact Dermatitis?

Anonymous said...

Cheap and crappy they may be, but that doesent justify the product killing you!

Yeah, the woman should have stopped wearing them sooner, but seriously, is no one else shocked at how much damage those shoes did to her?!

I very much doubt she'd have left them on to the point she had awfull scabs on her feet. No one could be that retarded.

I know wallmart is crap and it's employees are angry underpaid sullen people, but they could have shown her a little respect.

If perhaps she'd received an appology and a little help, and some basic common decency in the first place, she wouldnt be making such a big fuss about the whole thing anyway!

Green Cleaning said...

I actually did stop wearing them as soon as it was apparent there was a problem, I no longer shop at walmart, and never will again, as for short shorts? please, what are we 12 year olds now?

Anonymous said...

I've been reading your blog for several months now. I even added it to my Yahoo page so I can see when there's something new. I work service desk at KMart, so I experience many similarities to your stories.
USUALLY, I get a big laugh from it, but I think you crossed the line with this one. It's OK to laugh at people's stupidity; it's NOT however OK to laugh at people's pain. She went through an ordeal that was caused by cheap, plastic, made-in-china crap that WalMart sells! Why the attack on someone you haven't met? That's not your style, man. How about a little sympathy?
And, why the comment on her spelling? I've read YOUR writing enough to know it's not always perfect. So her sentences tend to run together; she still got her story across & that is the important thing.
Julie

Anonymous said...

Julie -

Go away.

Signed,

Blog readers who could care less what you think.

Also,

Kerry -

Sorry about your feet.

Anonymous said...

I could care less if the shoes cost $0.50! She has every right to buy her 50 cent shoes, wear her 50 cent shoes and not have to worry about them sending her to the ER! I could see if they broke the moment she put them on her feet.. THEN she was getting what she paid for! Chemical burns does not fall under the 'getting what you pay for' catagory. You need to be a little less bitter and maybe find a new job.

Wendy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Wow, you wanna sue wal mart because you've developed an allergy to latex? A better bet would be to go to the doctor and find out whats up because if you are in fact allergic to latex and spend all your time fighting wal mart...if you get into some kind of real medical trouble and they use latex gloves you could die. Don't blame wal mart for your allergies.

Anonymous said...

"Wow, you wanna sue wal mart because you've developed an allergy to latex?"

I'm not sure if you looked at that poor womans feet in those photos, but they are *NOT* what an allergy to latex looks like.
Also, um, contact with latex may aggravate and hurt horribly, but it doesent continue to BURN THE FLESH FOR SEVERAL WEEKS.

..you shop at wallmart, dont you?

LKBM said...

'Its called the darwin awards and she is now a nominee!'

The Darwin Awards are for people who have taken themselves out of the gene pool. Somehow I doubt those sandals have made her sterile. And don't think there's no one who would date someone this stupid. There surely is.

Anonymous said...

Yoyo, no I don't shop at Wal Mart, my parents weren't related before they were married.

Contact Dermatitis. Look it up.

Justin said...

Julie,

I've also been reading the blog for a couple months, but...

"USUALLY, I get a big laugh from it, but I think you crossed the line with this one. It's OK to laugh at people's stupidity; it's NOT however OK to laugh at people's pain....Why the attack on someone you haven't met? That's not your style, man."

Actually, isn't that EXACTLY this person's style? This blog is about attacking others, whether they are innocent, guilty, stupid, smart, or whatever else. It's like Punk'd or Tom Green stuff, only in a Wal Mart context. The blog owner is a jerk. We find humor in them being a jerk, commenting on other people. I think the difference here is not that the blogger has changed (he/she's no more mean spirited than usual), but rather that you now have a face--or at least some feet--to go with the diatribe.

Anonymous said...

"I'm not sure if you looked at that poor womans feet in those photos, but they are *NOT* what an allergy to latex looks like."

Erm, yeah, that's *exactly* what a latex allergy looks like. That's exactly what I get from a Band-Aid made with latex, or latex gloves. And, actually, from plastic flip flops, too. (So, I only wear leather or cloth ones.)

Anonymous said...

This was good. I actually enjoyed reading this.

You checked your racism at the door.

jess

Anonymous said...

Justin,

Actually,this blogger's style racism, pure and simple.

The style of the readers is to accept her blogger racism because without that seedy underbelly she would have to stop making up this stuff.

In short, she is rscist biggot who makes stuff up; and you're all buying into it.

Can you say: "PUNKED"?

Jess

Anonymous said...

Actually the author of this blog is a he- I thought it was a female for a long time. I usually enjoy reading this blog but I did find his lapse of sympathy on this one unfortunate- that truly does look nasty. If in fact she isn't allergic to plastic.. Walmart should pull the product until it is discovered that it is safe. Although I concur with blogger that you get what you pay for at walmart, consumers are entitles to safe products.

Anonymous said...

Jess,

I love the fact that you call "thid blogger" a she while screaming that "she" is racist, when in fact, HE is a gay man.

So I guess that makes you a homophobe and whatever it is they call people that hate and discriminate against homosexuals.

I'm making this assumption about you based on your "commenting style", as you made assumptions about "this blogger" based on HIS blogging style.

I do, however, fail to see how he can be racist, as you assert, given that he tears into ANYONE that's stupid, no matter their race (white, black, hispanic, middle eastern, asian, etc etc.).

Let me break it down for you, since you are apparently on the level of people that are featured in the stories on this blog:

A racist is someone that singles out a certain race of people for abuse, or that singles out every race but their own for abuse. Someone that abuses stupid people no matter their race is NOT a racist.

As for this story - if I had chemical burns on my feet, I'd be at the ER too. Not "waiting to go as soon as I could when I got around to it eventually sometime".

Anonymous said...

UPDATE http://www.lamanaphotography.com/walmart3.htm

What do you think of her now, tough guy?

There are lots of others who have suffered from WalMart's flip-flops..... it's not only her.