Wal-Mart included in nationwide acetaminophen recall

The nationwide recall on 11 million bottles of the over-the-counter pain reliever acetaminophen announced yesterday, has wrapped up mass merchandise and drug retailers in its wrath, including Walgreens Co. (NYSE:WAG), CVS Corp. (NYSE:CVS) drugstores and global retailer Wal-Mart, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) as well. The recall extended to dozens of generic and store-brand versions of acetaminophen. In other words, what a mess -- as there is no single brand to focus on here.

The offending acetaminophen bottles contain caplets that are thought to possibly contain microscopic pieces of metal and metal shavings that may have been introduced during the manufacturing process, according to reports.

To make matters worse, the acetaminophen caplets were made and sold in over 100 store brand variations, which makes the recall a logistics nightmare, I would suppose. In other words, almost every generic and store-brand acetaminophen bottled product was pulled off Wal-Mart shelves yesterday in response to the recall, which was issued by private-label manufacturer Perrigo and the FDA in a joint release.