A trip to Walmart, or This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

I took a trip to the Walmart near my office after work today, and of course I had to go visit the nail polish aisle.  Buying polish at Walmart - at any big-box store, really - is a hit-or-miss affair; you can't always find the latest colors, people love to "test" items that are plainly not meant to be used as testers, and nobody seems to know how to put an thing back where they got it even if its place is only 12 inches away.  But sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.

Walmart recently updated their manicure section, aiming for a brighter and cleaner, more appealing look.  It didn't last very long.  This display is less than a year old, and you can see where budding graffiti artists have "tagged" the shelves with polish - I saw it as it was being installed, and two days later the taggers had struck.  Makes you wonder how many unsuspecting shoppers went home with a gooey, not-quite-full bottle of the color they chose.  Notice the many, many empty slots - I don't think I've ever seen this display completely filled.  The higher-end polishes like Essie and Nicole were fairly well stocked, but the bargain-brand ones were practically decimated.

                                    
This is an endcap for L'Oreal's Summer 2013 "Miss Candy" line, and for some bizarre reason Berry Nice and Miss Pixie are switched.  Miss Pixie is actually a royal blue jelly polish, while Berry Nice is a dark purple jelly.  And note the purple blotch between the color illustrations...another "tagger".

Here we have a three-sided Revlon display that's largely empty except for the nail art duos.  Those are fully stocked probably due to the fact that they're hidden behind another endcap display.  I saw the same thing with a display of Maybelline Color Show polishes; meanwhile the main aisle display is half-empty.  Not exactly good marketing procedures.

These two bottles were on the Essie portion of the display rack.  Take a look at the label - both are the iconic shade "Ballet Slippers".  (Fun fact: this is the only shade of nail polish Queen Elizabeth II ever wears.)  But they're not exactly the same...

One bottle is a pale pink, while the other is more of a buff color.  Maybe one was a different batch, or maybe it's just so old it's changed color over time.  But either way it's kind of off-putting.

The trip wasn't a total loss, though; I went in hoping I'd be able to find the Salon Perfect Neon Collision collection, which has been generating some buzz in the nail-blog community.  I didn't find the collection, but I did find this:

This is Kaboom - neon blue and lime-green matte glitters in a clear base.  It's a mass-market dupe of the popular indie polish called Floam (you can see a side-by-side comparison here), but at less than half the price.  And serendipitously enough, this was the exact polish I was looking for.  Now I'm trying to talk myself out of going back and buying the last remaining bottle as a backup, because I do NOT need it!  

So that was my trip to Walmart.  I promise this whole blog isn't going to be me complaining about store displays, though; there will be manicures, new polishes, and nail art in the future!