Wal-Mart and its addiction to cheap, unsafe Chinese goods has been all over the news recently. This month, at least forty were sickened by the kind of tainted beef sold nationwide at Wal-Mart stores, prompting the second largest beef recall in history. Toxic chemicals like melamine have been found in Wal-Mart's pet food, and its shelves are stocked with lead-laced children's toys.

It sounds like a cheap horror novel but, unfortunately, it's all true. The situation is critical, and now is the perfect time of year to spread the word. So, in keeping with the spirit of Halloween, and Wal-Mart's terrifying product safety record, we've decided to host a feature called "Tales from the Big Box Boneyard."

Yes, the title is cheesy, but this is serious stuff. In the days leading up to Halloween, we are encouraging supporters to write us with their most disturbing Wal-Mart horror stories. After Halloween, we will feature five of the most ghastly tales, and their authors, on our website. To contribute, just add a comment to this post.

We're not looking for anything specific, but the more shocking, terrifying, and stomach turning the better. It is Halloween, after all, and we know there is no shortage of horror stories from the aisles of Wal-Mart. Just to give you a little inspiration, here are a few honorary Wal-Mart horror stories from recent headlines that are disturbing enough to get your skin crawling.

"Ratatouille"

Earlier this month, a Utah woman was preparing lunch for her children when she noticed something peculiar floating in the green beans she had bought from Wal-Mart. it was the severed head of a mouse.

No, it's not Stephen King's remake of the Pixar classic. It actually happened to Marianne Watson.

"I'm queasy just talking about it," she said, in an interview with the Salt Lake Tribune. "Thank goodness it ended up on the top and not the bottom, so I didn't serve it to [my family]."

Now, her refrigerator is a makeshift morgue where she keeps the frozen head of the offending mouse, as the matter could take up to two years to be fully resolved. When asked if she would consider returning to Wal-Mart, Watson said "Until I'm reassured that it's just an isolated incident, I won't."

Something tells us Wal-Mart won't be seeing Marianne Watson anytime soon.

"Flip Flop Horror"

Kerry Stiles bought "a cheap pair of flip flops" from her local Wal-Mart store. She wore the flip flops briefly,and only for a few minutes at a time, until she began to notice a tingling sensation on the parts of her feet where the straps touched her skin. The tingling quickly turned into a severe chemical burn that ate through her skin.

Like a responsible consumer, Kerry decided to bring the issue to the attention of local Wal-Mart management. There, she met with a Training manager, Jim, who literally turned his back on her as she tried to explain the problem with the dangerous flip flops. As if that wasn't insulting enough, Wal-Mart eventually gave her the number to a factory in CHINA, instructing her to direct her complaints overseas.

After hundreds of similar reports surfaced, Wal-Mart couldn't ignore the issue any longer. Thousands of the flip flops were pulled from Wal-Mart's shelves. Not much consolation for Kerry, who was left insulted and, literally, scarred for life.

Don't worry, your stories don't need to be this extreme. Though we expect some hair-raising tales, we're interested in any of your bad shopping experiences. So, get to writing!