At different times during the past several weeks I needed to purchase a short TOSLink optical cable and then a SATA to USB converter. I automatically first searched Amazon, which I do for just about everything (not just electronics) I want to purchase online because if they don’t carry it themselves, it is highly likely that one of their listed merchants does. For both these items, which each cost around $10, they were only carried by affiliated merchants (meaning I couldn’t bundle them with a third item to get over $25 and be eligible for free shipping) and the shipping/handling charge was almost equal to the price of the item.
I recently had a good experience purchasing a window AC unit from Walmart online and having it delivered to their local store for free where I picked it up. So I decided to see if their online store carried the connectors I needed. They had both at a comparable price and I could have them shipped to their store for free or shipped directly to me for about 1/3 the cost of what the Amazon merchants wanted. And whatever you purchase from them online can be returned to your local store which totally eliminates the major hassle of online returns and any associated shipping costs! Also do keep in mind that their there online store appears to carry orders of magnitude more electronic items than what you will find in a local store.
For high priced electronics such as HDTV’s, Blu-Ray DVD players, and Home Theaters Systems I’ve found that Walmart doesn’t carry the newest or top of the line models. So do the best you can to pin down your requirements and do other research before searching for these type items there.
