I Just Spent $29.69 in Roblox So Walmart (??) Could Mail Me a Big Strawberry Bag

These are the sacrifices I make to help you better understand the increasingly sprawling empire that is Roblox.

Roblox wants you to spend money. It’s a “free” game, after all. You cannot enter into an “experience” inside Roblox without being bombarded with asks—nay, demands—to spend robux, the in-game currency of Roblox. They also want you to stay on Roblox, which is why in the past year and change, Roblox has tried embracing an aging audience with “17+” experiences where you can, for example, get virtually drunk. But last week, it added a brand-new wrinkle: an option to buy items from Walmart, where players receive an in-game item to equip and wear and a product in the real world.

Which is how just a few days ago I ended up spending $29.69 (nice!) so I could get this:

And, more importantly, this:

The fashion choices of this Roblox character were chosen by my daughter, FWIW.

Brands are desperate to be relevant inside Roblox, Walmart included. It solves a tricky problem: how do you market to an audience who may not be paying attention? You know they’re paying attention in Roblox, so why not go where they’re already at? The problem is that kids are smart, and can sniff out inauthenticity without batting an eye, which is why so many brands that try to create experiences for Roblox can fall flat.

Walmart Discovered launched last fall, and to their credit, is a smarter approach. (It comes roughly a year after launching their other Roblox experience, Walmart Land.) It’s about engaging in Walmart/Roblox-adjacent experiences, like shop cart races, more than anything else. The Walmart branding is still everywhere, mind you, but at least seems to understand the basic appeal of Roblox for a lot of people, which is earning items to wear and engaging in different activities with friends and strangers. You’re also being marketed to along the way, but hey, at least it feels less omnipresent.

“Walmart Discovered, which is available to those 13 and older,” said Walmart chief marketing officer William White in a press release from last year, “is a truly immersive destination where users can discover trending virtual items and creators of all sizes—from micro to macro—and those developers can monetize through sales of their virtual items via Robux, Roblox’s native currency.”

Here’s how this works.

First, your account has to be flagged as 13+ to enter Walmart Discovered, regardless of whether you intend to buy anything. I tested my child’s Roblox account, and she was not able to access it due to the parental restrictions. But I was able to jump in, and once inside, you find three options for this experiment: a hobo bag ($19.98), a pair of headphones ($49.88), and a tumblr ($14.98). Each real world purchase comes with a digital item for Roblox created by a known Roblox creator that you can also wear.

“I think we will start seeing brands selling virtual items alongside real-life products,” said Md17, an 18-year-old fashion creator in Roblox, who’s collaborated with Walmart before and designed the experiment’s headphones virtual item. “Brands are beginning to realize that Gen Z is spending more time in digital worlds, meaning digital self-expression is a new market that brands must adapt to. The more time we spend inside these virtual worlds, the more critical it is for brands to include a virtual version of their physical products since we will spend more time inside virtual spaces.”

When asked how well the items were selling, Md17 told me they “don’t have any information on sales.” Roblox, however, has said it’s not taking a cut during this phase.

When you click “buy real-world item at Walmart,” a browser pops up. It doesn’t pull from an existing credit card tied to Roblox or Walmart, so there’s no chance of an accidental purchase. You then enter your information just like you might check out online at Walmart’s existing online store. It’s seamless, even if it feels a little strange.

“It’s trying to connect more with Zoomers, to see what works and doesn't with this type of commerce and, should it work, then having a first mover advantage,” said Circana analyst Mat Piscatella. “Nothing I've read has led me to think that the goals or aspirations go far beyond that, for now. It also doesn't seem like a concept that is particularly expensive or risky to test, so if it doesn't work then it's probably no big deal as well. It all seems shockingly reasonable and level-headed. Which was not the case for this type of chatter a couple years ago.”

Remember when the metaverse was coming for everything? Instead, we’re settling for the ability to buy a pair of digital phones from Walmart alongside some real ones.

All this comes hand-in-hand with Roblox’s big push into advertising. Roblox has millions and millions of players, and Roblox is a public company with shareholders looking for growth. The company’s recent financial results were positive, though its moves have drawn scrutiny from watchdog groups scrutinizing its business practices.

You cannot derive broad consensus from Reddit, but the sentiment seems noteworthy.

“Roblox is constantly pushing what the investors want and not their users,” said Alexandra, aka AlexTanooki, a notable member of the Roblox community who helps run the popular Roblox_RTC and FreshCut community accounts on Twitter/X. “The sense that general users have over the past months is if you ask any Roblox user they will have the opinion that Roblox is not listening to their user base, and rather is implementing features on a self-centered level.”

Alexandra, who’s been playing Roblox since age 12 and now makes a living off it, said it “represents a broader issue in Roblox’s out of ‘touch’ attitude with the community.”

It’s hard to tell how successful Walmart Discovered has been, but Roblox says it’s been visited 20.9 million times since May 2023. A game listed as one of the “most engaging” on Roblox as of this writing, Rainbow Friends, has been visited 3.2 billion times. Walmart Land, by comparison, launched in September 2022, and has been visited 18.6 million times. There’s also a rip-off of Walmart Land that shows up earlier in search than Walmart’s own creation? Then again, Roblox is the land of questionable copyright enforcement already, so it’s not shocking to see that extended to brands.

I ultimately picked the hobo bag because I figured my oldest might actually wear it around. A day or two after making the purchase, it showed up at my door like any other order. Unfortunately, the bag is too big and unwieldy for either of my children.

So, it’s sitting in a bag, waiting to be returned. Do I have to return my avatar item, too?

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Also:

• This feels like the real future of Roblox, as they look to find new revenue sources. I suspect most kids are going to end up ignoring it, but it’ll result in a lot of splashy press releases for spaces that go mostly ignored a few months later.

• Marketing to young audiences does seem hard, though. I’m not sure where you can reliably push a product, knowing they’d actually see it. When we signed up for YouTube TV, my kids were blown away and confused by the concept of TV ads!

• What do people shop at Walmart for? It’s not part of our regular rotation, but we’re always trying to find ways to get a deal somewhere on our regular purchases.