How Price Matching Works During the Holidays!

I’ve had a lot of questions lately about How Price Matching Works During the Holidays.  So hopefully this post will clear it all up for you guys–and help you know how to Price Match at different stores to help you save time & money this Holiday Season.

Most stores will change their Price Matching Policy during the Holiday Season.  And those are typically online for you to check, if you ever have any questions.  I’ll feature a few of the most popular stores in this post.

Walmart: You can find their full Price Matching Policy here. However, here is the gist:

• It is the store’s responsibility to obtain the local competitor ads
• Our customers must inform the associate of the price and retailer (local and online)
• We reserve the right to verify the price and the availability of the identical item (i.e. size, model, quantity, brand, color)
• The item must be currently in-stock at the online retailer’s website* at the time the Price Match is requested
• 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
• Online Prices will not be matched in Alaska and Puerto Rico for in store purchases”

You can get Price Matching done in regular check out lines at Walmart.  I would recommend you have a copy of the ad with you to show the cashier.  Or pull up the online retailer’s website on your phone. Their getting stingy these days! 😉

Walmart stores will Price Match these online retailers: Academy.com, Amazon.com, Autozone.com, Babiesrus.com, Basspro.com, Bedbathandbeyond.com, Bestbuy.com, Cabelas.com, Dickssportinggoods.com, Dollargeneral.com, Familydollar.com, Homedepot.com, Jcpenney.com, Kmart.com, Kohls.com, Lowes.com, Michaels.com, Newegg.com, Officedepot.com, Oreillyauto.com, Pepboys.com, Petco.com, Petsmart.com, Sears.com, SportsAuthority.com, Staples.com, Target.com, Tigerdirect.com, Toysrus.com, Walgreens.com, Walmart.com.

Target: Here is their full Price Matching Policy.  Here is the gist of it:

We’ll match the price if you buy a qualifying item at Target, then find the identical item for less at Target.com, select online competitors, or in Target’s or a competitor’s local printed or digital ad. Price matches may be requested at the time of purchase or price adjustments within 14 days of purchase. Target will price match at their stores with these 27 online retailers.

Unlike Walmart, you will need to head to Customer Service to Price Match anything that needs to be Price Matched.  Target will need to verify the price themselves before adjusting your price.

Best Buy:  Here is their full Price Matching Policy.  Here is the gist of it:

• At the time of sale, we price match all local retail competitors (including their online prices) and we price match products shipped from and sold by these major online retailers: Amazon.com, Bhphotovideo.com, Crutchfield.com, Dell.com, HP.com, Newegg.com, and TigerDirect.com.
• We match BestBuy.com prices on in-store purchases and in-store prices on BestBuy.com purchases.
• If we lower our price during the return and exchange period, we will match our lower price, upon request.
• Our Price Match Guarantee covers one price match per identical item, per customer, at the current pre-tax price available to all customers.

You will need to head to their Customer Service in order to get a Price Match.  However, Best Buy will also change the price of your purchase if you purchase online with free in-store pickup and get to the store to see that the price is lower elsewhere and can prove it.  Just have the adjust your price at Customer Service!

Best Buy will also Price Match Warehouse stores like Costco!  (More details on that over here.)

ToysRus: You can see their full Price Matching policy here.  But here is the gist of it:

• Our Price Match Guarantee is valid for in-store purchases only.
• Price Match is given at the time of purchase or within 7 days of purchase date with valid receipt.
• When two or more of the same item are purchase, Price Match will be limited to two of those items.
• We will match prices in our competitor’s local print advertisements.
• We will match prices from selected online competitor websites, including Walmart.com, Target.com, BestBuy.com, Sears.com, Kmart.com, buybuyBaby.com, Meijer.com, FredMeyer.com, diapers.com, BabyDepot.com, LEGO.com and Amazon.com.
• We will match Toysrus.com and Babiesrus.com online pricing in our stores, except for online-only prices.

NOTE:  ToysRus will NOT Price Match Black Friday Prices or any prices from 11/22/15 through Cyber Monday.

Amazon:

They don’t have an official policy to Price Match.  However, they do have a workaround that is really nice and pretty secret.  If you haven’t been a F2D reader for a while, you might have missed that.  So head back to this previous post and read how it works!

Ok, so there are a lot of different policies and a lot of different places to Price Match.  But you don’t want to waste your time trying to make Price Matching work for you! So here is my tip:  Download a Price Scanner App.  When you are in-store, before you purchase something, quickly scan it with your smartphone and see if any other stores have it for cheaper.  If they do, check to see if that online store is included in that store’s Price Matching Policy, if it is, you can buy it and do a price adjustment at Customer Service.  If they aren’t included as a store that they will Price Match, you can decide if you would rather purchase it through that online retailer instead to save money!

Here are a few apps you can download to help you know which stores have the lowest price. Just search for them on your phone and download them:

• RedLaser App 
• ShopSavvy App
• PriceGrabber App

Ok, hope that helps you this Holiday Season!  If you have any other tips to add, just leave them in the comment section below!