Big Lots! of Garbage

The bait and switch isn't dead!

While going through the ads in Sunday's Mercury News, we noticed an ad on the front page of Big Lots's weekly circular advertising a 45-gallon, wheeled, Roughneck trash can for only $16.

Since our trash cans have seen better days (we got them with the house), and since Rubbermaid usually makes a decent product, I headed out to Big Lots on Sunday afternoon to buy one of these trash cans. Arriving at the Big Lots (which was surprisingly crowded, probably with refugees from the nearby Costco), I quickly found a stack of 45-gallon, wheeled trash cans:

Here's a closer look at the label:

While I wasn't quite sure why I should compare the $16 price to $14.44, at first it seemed that I had found my deal. Upon closer inspection of the trash cans, however, I noticed that the trash cans weren't Rubbermaid Roughneck trash cans, as advertised, but actually "Rough & Rugged" trash cans from some company called United Solutions.

In and of itself, that fact may not have been a deal killer. But the trash cans were made of pretty cheap plastic -- and didn't appear likely to stand up to a single week of TLC from our trash guys.

I walked through the store a couple more times to see if the actual Rubbermaid trash cans were stacked somewhere else (Big Lots isn't the most well-organized store I've ever shopped in), but came up empty. Flagging a passing Big Lots employee, I asked him where I could find the advertised trash cans. He told me that the trash cans were scattered throughout the store, but that I could definitely find them over there -- and he pointed back towards the original display. I told him that those trash cans weren't Rubbermaid Roughneck trash cans, but United Solutions Rough & Rugged trash cans, but the distinction seemed to escape him. He mumbled something and walked away.

Not wanting to brave the long lines at the registers to speak to a manager, I left the store sans trash can. I wonder how many folks will end up buying Rough & Rugged trash cans instead of Roughneck trash cans. And I wonder if Rubbermaid would be interested in what Big Lots has been up to.