Walmart - Price matching

I love Walmart. Say what you will about the people who shop and work there, but Walmart does the most of any other store to make sure they keep your business. I am particularly bias to Walmart because there is one directly behind my subdivision, so it makes my shopping life simple.

I will be honest though: Walmart does NOT have the best prices in town. If fact, Walmart RARELY has the best prices in town when it comes to my shopping list. 

That being said, Walmart has a fantastic policy called Price Match, and therefore I do most of my shopping at Walmart because it allows me to get almost everything I need in one place. 

Let's say it's summer time and I want to buy produce for the week. Albertson's has grapes on sale for $0.88/lb, Fred Meyer's has the apples I like on sale for $0.72/lb, and Ridley's has Potatoes on sale for $0.10/lb. Rather than driving all over town in order to get the best deals on each item, I can just take the store ads with me to Walmart, get what I want, and have the cashier adjust the price to match the competitors when I'm at the check out. I just got all the best deals in town without driving all over town. Also, I can use manufacturer coupons and rebates on top of the price match. Sometimes I have a rebate that can only be redeemed at Walmart, but a different store has the item on sale. I can get both deals by price matching. 

So how does price matching work? If another store advertises a particular deal, Walmart will lower their price to match that sale. The items have to match exactly (size and brand) and you almost always have to bring the advertisement with you to the checkout to prove the sale price. Also, they will only honor sales with specific prices listed, meaning if something simply says "buy one get one half off", Walmart won't price match it.  If an advertisement says "Buy $30.00 of this product and get a $5.00 gift card back", Walmart won't match it. But most sales are the simple "2 for $5.00" or "$0.69 each", they WILL honor that. Here is the official policy from their website:

Walmart will Price Match local competitors and select online retailers* for an identical, in-stock item.

Price Match at a Walmart store:

• It is the store's responsibility to obtain the local competitor ads
• Our customers must inform the associate of the price and retailer 
• We reserve the right to verify the price and the availability of the identical item (i.e. size, model, quantity, brand, color)
• We reserve the right to limit quantities to one-per-customer, per item, per day**
• We will match Walmart.com prices for in-store purchases
• The Store manager has the final decision on any Price Match

While this says that it is their responsibility to obtain the local competitor's ads, it will save you a lot of time and trouble if you bring it with you. In every Walmart I've been to, there is only 1 checkout that consistently has the advertisements on hand, it's the one that you have to go through if you're purchasing tobacco. All the other check out lanes are too small to keep track of the ads, and if you ask them to find the ad in order to price match it, you will get a lot of negative comments from people around you. I know because it's happened to me on occasion. 

Also, because we are in the digital age, you can pull up a competitors advertisement on your phone and show that to the cashier in order to get the price you want. I've done it many times, and I've never had a price refused. 

Please be aware that sometimes stores like Fred Meyer's or Albertson's will advertise a certain deal that you only get if you use their vendor coupon in their printed ad at the checkout. For example, the coupon might say "Meadow Gold Milk $1.88/gallon". That coupon isn't giving you $1.88 off a gallon of milk, it is allowing you to have the price of the milk adjusted to $1.88.  When you go to Albertson's, the shelf price of the milk will still be $3.29 (or whatever the actual price is), but when you scan the coupon at the register, it will ring up as $1.88.  These coupons can be used in addition to any manufacturer coupon you might have that matches the item.  Unfortunately, if you are buying several of the item at Albertson's, you have to clip several coupons in order for them to give you the sale price on your purchase. It becomes tedious and a takes a lot of time, and it also wastes the paper from the rest of the ad that just got thrown away because you only needed it for 1 coupon.

At Walmart, you can still get that $1.88 price, but without clipping the coupon. You simply show them the advertisement and they'll ring up the price in their register for all the items you are purchasing. You can still use any manufacturer coupons or rebates that you might have as well. 

The only snag you might run into when trying to price match is if the size of the item on sale isn't available at Walmart, or if Walmart doesn't carry that particular brand. I'll tell you right now that Walmart doesn't carry the Western Family brand (sad, I know).  

Please be honest when you are price matching. Many advertisements will say "Select varieties only" and picture a few of the varieties that match that sale. If you don't know which variety is on sale, it is always safe to price match the variety pictured, because you KNOW that is one of the options available. Some varieties are more expensive than others, and it is dishonest to try to get more bang for your buck simply because an advertisement wasn't specific. Your integrity is worth more than a few dollars.