First thing to consider is what is failing and why?
I highly doubt the frame is cracking or the cranks and control parts are failing.
Everything is fair game, honestly. Plastic brake levers go pretty quickly. Pot metal derailleurs can't take much of a bump before they lose integrity. I've seen plenty of failed clamps (usually stem/bar interface). And while it usually takes more for the frame to go (usually outright abuse, because the bike is viewed as a toy and not a transportation tool that one should care for), I've seen them rust through and fail, also. Usually with the frame, the problem is that it's just not welded straight. Very low QC. The wheels don't line up together. Or the rear end is so wonky that it's impossible for the shifting to actually work right. And you don't figure that out until you've fiddled with adjusting the drivetrain for awhile, when you can't get it to shift right. It gets worse if the owner has "upgraded" the drivetrain at some point, because the more cogs you put in the rear and the more precise the function of the components, the more glaring it becomes that the frame is the problem.
So what is failing?
Another issue is supply chain shortages causing prices to go up & the standard 6 speed freewheel beginning obsolete and requiring an entirely new rear wheel....
This comes down to doing research, on the consumers part. But in this case the retailer is being blamed... Does that mean coca cola or a fast food chain fault if you get fat?
Or Amazon is at fault for selling some crappy electronics?
People like sugar, fat and shiny bikes even if it's not good for them.
It comes to research, does it? How much research do you expect people to invest for a $100 bike? A big retailer like Walmart can actually (and often does) dictate to manufacturers and suppliers what they want. If they have a problem with a product, then they can demand improvements. They're big enough of a seller that they can demand a modicum of quality and serviceability without blowing up the costs. They have more power over the products that come from the overseas factories from multinational corporations than most. If consumers demand improvements (which is exactly what this petition is), then Walmart can exert some of its purchasing power to make some of these things happen.
There is a greater push for manufacturers to account for what happens to their products after they're sold. Right now, this "cradle to grave" is only legally applied to hazardous waste. But the growing problem of plastic waste has people thinking about applying it to other things that form waste, especially plastic production. Below a certain quality level, bicycles are treated as disposable. Some make it to metal recyclers, but a lot of them don't. They're tossed in dumpsters to go to landfills. They're left to rot as litter. The retailer is one link in this chain, and they do have some control over the products that they sell. If they're small, they don't have much. They can only buy what's available (and have little to no power to convince the manufacturer to change that), and realistically their reach to convince customers to buy this thing instead of that other thing is much smaller, so it's much more difficult for them to push for larger changes that would benefit their customers and society as a whole. Larger retailers and larger corporations can do more (and should).
Cheap sugar and cheap fast food are definitely other challenges that aren't too dissimilar. Cheap sugar is honestly the bigger problem. Companies like coca-cola can make changes, and they are, because consumers are making demands. They're listening to those, though the changes occur slowly. But the deeper problem is the source of all that cheap sugar, much like the root of the problem with built-to-fail bikes lies with the manufacturers.
Some of them use standards so old that they're the only ones using them anymore. Ashtabula cranks, for example. But I've seen some really weird bb standards on BSOs where you don't even know where to find a replacement when you need one. Ancient or otherwise strange hub spacing standards make it harder to find replacement wheels/hubs. Part of the problem is that the manufacturer/suppliers make it difficult or even impossible to obtain the necessary parts to service/maintain these bikes. This is just one reason why it can cost a shop
more to work on these bikes than on the usual stuff they see. They spend more time hunting for replacements for a part with a weird standard or dimension.
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