How Do You Price Match?

Some stores will allow you to “price match” items. What exactly does this mean? It means that if you find an item being sold for a lower price at another store, they will lower the price of the item at their store to “match” the competitor’s price. The two major stores that offer price matching are Wal-Mart and Target.

I am not at all the authority on price matching. In fact I have only ever price matched 2 items in one transaction at Wal-Mart. The main reason that I don’t price match items more often is not because it is hard to do. In fact it was pretty easy! The reason is simply that I hardly ever shop at those two stores.

There are certainly some pros and cons to price matching.

· Pros: It can save you time and gas! You can get everything at one store instead of driving all over town. Wal-Mart will even price match produce.

· Cons: If you are using coupons, neither of these stores double, so you may be missing out on savings if the store you are matching it to does double. There are pretty strict rules to follow, and you have to make sure you stop the cashier and show them the price to match it to. This can be a little bit tedious and time consuming.

Price matching may be a great option for you if no stores in your area double and/or you have to drive long distances to get to the store. Around here, all the stores are clustered close together, and I would have to pass them by to get to Wal-Mart. I also find that I am able to get better deals by shopping at the stores that will double my coupons and matching my coupons to their sale prices (more on that later).



If you decide to give price matching a shot, here a few things that you should keep in mind:

1. Make sure you know the rules! Here are the price matching policies for Target and Walmart. Read over them before you go so you know what to expect. Print out a copy to take along in case you run into any issues.

You will notice that Target’s is VERY strict, so proceed with caution. Wal-mart seems to have relaxed a bit on their rules and some stores do not even require you to show the ad any more. I suppose they take your word for it??? Do not abuse that, though!

2. Bring your ads along! You will definitely be needing them at Target!

3. When you get to the register, it would be a good idea to group the items you want to price match together, either at the beginning or at the end of your transaction.

4. Pay attention to make sure the cashier does not scan them in at normal price. If so you will need to ask them to void it off the transaction and re-ring it at the lower price. Too many voids on a transaction will require them to need a manager’s key before the register will allow the transaction to proceed. This can take a long time as these stores can be very busy and often have only 1 manager available.

5. If you are making a large shopping trip, you may want to make a list of your items that will be price matched, and organize your list by which store has the lower price on that item, so you can quickly present the correct ad for that group. For example, write down the items you intend to price match from the Kroger Ad, the Albertson’s Ad, etc. Then you can hand over all the items from that ad at once instead of flipping through all of them for each item trying to remember where it was on sale.

6. Have patience with the cashier and be happy to know you are saving money and will not have to go to three more stores. =)


Have you done price matching before?  Did you have a good or bad experience with it?  Tell us about it!

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