K&N oil filters at Wally's

[RF Overlord]

A member on an automotive forum I belong to posted this today:

"And as far as K&N's go, there's a big difference quality wise in the ones they sell at Walmart (lower) and their parts store ones."

I know some things (like home appliances and TV's) are sometimes specifically de-contented for sale at Wally World, but I've not heard of this applying to the automotive section. Any comments?

 

[Hall]

Morons say that.... Why would K&N risk their reputation by building inferior parts to be sold anywhere ? Do those same people actually think K&N has a factory that manufacturers their filters too ?

 

[Bozzman72]

I use them from Wally and Amazon. All the same.

 

[ZeeOSix]

A member on an automotive forum I belong to posted this today:

"And as far as K&N's go, there's a big difference quality wise in the ones they sell at Walmart (lower) and their parts store ones."

I know some things (like home appliances and TV's) are sometimes specifically de-contented for sale at Wally World, but I've not heard of this applying to the automotive section. Any comments?

It's the same non-sense people parrot when it comes to name brand oil (Mobil, Valvoline, Castrol, etc) being sold at Walmart. Did anyone buy those K&N filters from different stores, cut them open and compare them?

It is true however that some of the brand name oils sold at Walmart have a different UPC on the bottle (to be able to track Walmart sales is what I was told), but the oil is exactly the same.

 

[sjw91]

Unless that person was trying to say they only sell the K&N Select filters in Walmart and not the Gold filters (at least at the ones near me). It's lower on their product line, but it's not intentionally cheapened for Walmart. A Select is the same, wherever it's sold.

 

[pbm]

The K&N 7317 oil filter that I recently checked out at Walmart seemed to be the same filter as the ST MP7317 and the STP 10K filter sold at AZ. I say this assuming the media is the same in each filter which it may not be.

 

[SugarMouth]

The K&N 7317 oil filter that I recently checked out at Walmart seemed to be the same filter as the ST MP7317 and the STP 10K filter sold at AZ. I say this assuming the media is the same in each filter which it may not be.

I noticed the same.

 

[Hall]

It is true however that some of the brand name oils sold at Walmart have a different UPC on the bottle (to be able to track Walmart sales is what I was told)

I realize you're not the one stating this, but whoever did is wrong. The oil manufacturer will track their Walmart sales based on what they ship to Walmart - as easy as that. Walmart isn't buying products from middlemen.

 

[ZeeOSix]

I realize you're not the one stating this, but whoever did is wrong. The oil manufacturer will track their Walmart sales based on what they ship to Walmart - as easy as that. Walmart isn't buying products from middlemen.

I'm stating this because I have talked directly to Valvoline about why the UPC on the Valvoline jugs sold at Walmart were unique for the same bottle of oil shown on Valvoline's website that has a different UPC than the Walmart Valvoline - it's a request from Walmart for Valvoline to assign a unique UPC for all Valvoline oil manufactured for Walmart. Valvoline told me Walmart wants their own UPC on the Valvoline oil shipped to and sold at Walmart, but the oil is exactly the same in the bottle.

 

[Odd_Ball]

If they have the same part number on the box, they are the same part. End of story.

No manufacturer wants the headache of trying to manage and track two different parts that are marked with the same part number to see that they get to different customers.

If K&N were making a different product especially for Walmart, that would be reflected in the part number on the box.

 

[ZeeOSix]

.If K&N were making a different product especially for Walmart, that would be reflected in the part number on the box.

Just like the Walmart Valvoline example, the K&N filters at Walmart might have the same filter P/N because they are the same exact filter, but not the same UPC.