# Tires From Walmart? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 27, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-from-walmart/607489 "2011-12-27T03:33:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-from-walmart/607489/21 "2011-12-28T22:58:31Z")
If it’s truly impossible to know the failure rate of Walmart tires vs the failure rate of tires sold by other companies (and absent any cites to the contrary, I agree that it is), then saying “they’re cheaper, so they’re obviously less-safe,” is not only fallacious, it’s screamingly ignorant. In fact, I’m pretty sure it qualifies as _libel_. I’m mostly confused about your association between low cost and lax material/safety regulations. Walmart accomplishes lower pricing by taking advantage of “_economy of scale_.” It’s an economic term meaning they can undercut everyone else and make a razor-thin margin on any product, but still come out ahead because they will sell 10,000 times more than any local company could ever hope to. You have an anti-Walmart agenda, and I’m onto it. There are plenty of REAL reasons to dislike Walmart–their crappy wages, scheduling employees for 35-39 hours a week to avoid giving them full-time benefits, the way they crowd out mom-and-pop stores. Why not pick on Walmart’s \*real \*problems, instead? By inventing fake ones, you come off as hysterical and eminently ignorable. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-from-walmart/607489/22 "2011-12-30T16:06:37Z")
> [@chiroptera](#): > > I thought most tires were made in China? The indie tire store I go to (for oil changes as well) has one brand they tout as American made, I think all the others they sell are imported. I can’t recall the brand. > > I wouldn’t go to WalMart for automotive work of any kind, although I grocery shop there sometimes. Mainly because I try to spend my money at locally-owned businesses whenever feasible and the indie place I go to is very reasonable. Mounting tires is pretty basic, I don’t see why installer Joe Smith at WalMart is going to be less skilled than installer Joe Brown at Sears. When we last bought new tires, we got Michelins - I got the impression that those were the only American-made ones available. Even Firestone / Goodyear etc. were made in China. In other words, the only American-made tires were the ones from the French-owned company. However, doing some googling now suggests this is not necessarily true: [Buying Union! How to be sure you're buying USW-made tires. | International Brotherhood of Boilermakers](http://www.boilermakers.org/resources/news/buy_union_made_tires). As I recall, the locally-owned shops were _significantly_ more expensive than the chain stores, so we went with NTB for our tires. Didn’t even consider Wal-Mart (and I’d have avoided it anyway for similar reasons to yours). ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-from-walmart/607489/23 "2011-12-30T16:14:54Z")
Why would you suspect inferior product/service from WalMart? Sheesh! Get over yourself. If you don’t like WalMart, don’t go there. Spend more for less somewhere else. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tires-from-walmart/607489.md?page=1)