Wal-mart price matching. Improved!

When Wal-mart announced that they would start doing price matching to any other local ads in the area, they apparently forgot to tell their employees. Trying to get a price adjustment was a combination of fighting with the cashier, manager, and waving the printed out policy from the website in their face. (Nicely of course….no cursing!) In other words, it was not as easy as that commercial made it seem.

The other issue was that when it comes to matching items, they did not know how to do simple math. Trying to figure out how much to charge for 6 packs of soda when the price is 4 for $10 seemed to be beyond them. An apparent victim of a woefully inept school system,  (let the teachers teach and that will be resolved) these young cashiers could only stare blankly while trying to make the calculations that simple division will accomplish.

However, (cue the Angelic music) it has finally gotten better to the point that you can go in and tell them what ad you want to price match to and the price on the ad. (You still should break it down for them to be sure. 4 for $10 should be announced as $2.50 each or you run the risk of that blank stare.)

There are two really good advantages of price matching with Wal-mart that make this worth doing. The first is convenience . It truly is more convenient than running all over town to get 2 items here, 3 there and a single box of Jello over yonder. The second is perhaps the better reason. That reason is selection.

Say that the local Dollar General or small store is running a good deal on Coke products but you only drink Coke Zero. You may not find it among the selection at this small store. So you take your ad down to Wal-mart and pick up your favorite flavor (caffeine free Coke Zero) simply because the ad only said ‘Coke products.’  The same thing for flavors of Jello. Nice to get that Black Cherry instead of settling for a small selection.

I have no idea how long Wal-mart will do this. Perhaps forever. They certainly are, or should be, driving more people into the stores but when you go and get a pineapple for .98 cents (price matched to an ad) when they are charging $2.98, I have to wonder if they are making any money?

One last suggestion: Print out a copy of the ad match policy. Print it in color and you will find easy illustrations and examples of what they will and will not match. This will make it easy for you to feel the confidence to ask for the ad match. If they don’t know the policy then you can just hand them the ad and say “I have that covered.”