Many items especially in fishing dept at Wal-Mart look the same as sold elsewhere, but on inspection have a different bar code and very slightly different product model with a -01 or similar extension. They are indeed made slightly different with different internal parts, a different product packaging and sometimes a different warranty policy specifically for Wal-mart sales only.

You can't typically directly compare for example fishing reels sold at Wal-Mart with same looking models sold elsewhere though the reels 'look' exactly the same.

That ain't WalMarts falt. You bought it.