If you watch even a little TV these days, you’ve probably seen that annoying “Match it!” commercial from Walmart. Apparently, they will now meet competitor’s advertised deals.
But this isn’t a story about competitor price-matching. It’s a story about Walmart matching its own prices.
Late last night, I remembered that we needed a cable modem. Cox was coming out in the morning to turn on the Internet, and so I was convinced that we needed the cable modem when it was set up. (We didn’t. Stress has turned my brain to mush.)
I found a good deal on Walmart’s website: $54.82. There was a in-store pickup option, but I wasn’t sure whether that was something they did around the clock or whether we would have to go the next morning. Since Tim had to be at the house at 8 a.m., we thought it was best to just go and buy it ourselves.
Imagine my surprise when we found it for $61.96 in the store.
I inquired about the difference. The guy patiently (I think maybe they get this question a lot) explained that the lower price was the online price. It could only be gotten by ordering online. Otherwise, in-store prices were higher.
So… just to be clear: You can buy the cable modem online for $54.82 and pick it up in store, but if you go to the store, go directly to the section pick it up yourself and check out, you’ll pay an extra $7.14.
I’ve used a couple of stores with in-store pickup options, and the prices have never been different than what was quoted on the website.
Having heard the “Match it!” commercial one too many times, I decided to try appealing to a manager’s logic. After all, if they were willing to match their competitors’ prices, surely they would match their own website’s!
But no. The women at the returns and exchanges desk agreed that nothing could be done. ”We can’t compete against our own website,” one of them said.
Interesting. I hadn’t been aware that it was seen as competition.
In fact, I still fail to see how it’s competitive. By basic accounting standards, the physical store would receive the credit for the sale. You can’t award the sale to a website when the merchandise is taken from a brick and mortar store. That would lead to bookkeeping chaos.
Either way, I am getting one (1) Motorola Cable Modem from this Walmart store’s inventory. Whether I pick it off the shelf on my own and pay in person, or whether I pay online and an employee plucks it off the shelf. The sucker is coming out of that store’s stock and going home with me.
So why does the less convenient one cost more?
It was too late and I was too weary to really argue against this logic. We needed the modem the next morning (I thought). So we bought it while I grumbled.
Now that I know we don’t need it right this second, I’m tempted to return it and either buy it online (then I can pick up in store!) or go to a different merchant entirely.
Has anyone else seen something like this before?
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Yes. I looked up a simple TV table for $20.00 online and when I went to the nearest Wal-Mart it was priced at $25.00. Super retarded!
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could you find it cheaper on buy.com or amazon.com or the like? that kinda ticks me off
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Abigail Reply:
September 14th, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Suzanne,
I could find it for about the same price on Amazon, but we need it sooner than that. I need to be able to work from that location no later than Monday of next week.
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Abigail Reply:
September 14th, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Suzanne,
I could find it for about the same price on Amazon, but we need it sooner than that. I need to be able to work from that location no later than Monday of next week.
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Similar thing last Christmas…bought a camera for my daughter and son-in-law. WalMart had an excellent bundled deal online, so I went to the nearest store to look at it. They had the camera, but not the bundled deal, and the camera was 20.00 more in the store with no memory card, batteries or case. I went back home and ordered online, picked up the bundled deal four days later after WalMart had shipped it to my store. Turns out all online orders come straight from a warehouse, not from the local store, even if it is in stock there, so they are, in effect, competing with their own website.
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Abigail Reply:
September 15th, 2011 at 9:36 am
Cynthia,
That's true when they ship it to your store. In this case, though, it was same day in-store pickup. I could pick it up about an hour after ordering, so there's no way it came from a warehouse.
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Abigail Reply:
September 15th, 2011 at 9:36 am
Cynthia,
That's true when they ship it to your store. In this case, though, it was same day in-store pickup. I could pick it up about an hour after ordering, so there's no way it came from a warehouse.
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This happened to me at Walmart too and that's the last time i went. I wasn't a fan anyways and that sealed the deal. Idiots.
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Meh, we just use them as the tools they are.
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Most of the time anyway. We were a little rushed w/ this purchase as Abby said due to her exhaustion level.
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It actually does make sense – if you purchase the item online, you’re buying from the online entity – walmart.com – which has lower margins because they don’t have physical stores or floor employees/cashiers. If you choose the option to pick up in store, the local store is transferring their inventory – at cost – to the online store. They didn’t “sell” the item – the inventory got transferred to the online store – - they can’t sell the item to you at the online price, because they won’t make their margin.
The loss on margin they take if they price match a competitor, comes out of a different budget – probably a marketing or promo budget. They don’t want to use that budget up pricematching against their own company.
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I recenly found a new release DVD on Walmart's website for a sale price of $30. I figured cool, I'll go over to the store near my work on my lunch hour and grab a copy. It was a sale price of $35 in store. Ugh!
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I would *totally* buy it online, choose the in-store pick-up option, and when you go to pick it up, return the one you already bought.
By the time they're done dealing with all of the accounting, employee costs, etc, they will have lost any extra margin they might have made on this product. And you get your $7+ dollars back, which, unless you live a very long way from Wal-mart (long enough that the price of gas would eat it all up). I personally really hate Wal-Mart, and ridiculoous policies like this are just one tiny reason why. Sadly, the insanity is not limited – other big chains do it too (Best Buy for one).
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Bryan Reply:
September 20th, 2011 at 6:41 am
@Lis – I'm curious about this Walmart hate you have. Is it based on their irritating policy of bringing in truck loads of aid for disaster relief or their blatant support of charity? Just because you have no understanding of basic economics, the realities of retail, and supply chain is no reason to hate.
@Abigail – Where else would you have bought the router cheaper in the middle of the night? How much would overnight shipping from Amazon have cost you?
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Bryan Reply:
September 20th, 2011 at 6:41 am
@Lis – I'm curious about this Walmart hate you have. Is it based on their irritating policy of bringing in truck loads of aid for disaster relief or their blatant support of charity? Just because you have no understanding of basic economics, the realities of retail, and supply chain is no reason to hate.
@Abigail – Where else would you have bought the router cheaper in the middle of the night? How much would overnight shipping from Amazon have cost you?
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walmart now has same day pickup if it is available in the store inventory. . . check it out just to be sure, but that's what walmart.com told me on a backpack and it worked for me
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Check here: http://www.pricematching.us/index.php/price-match…
and then talk to the store manager. They should be able to adjust the price.
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Similar event, but I was able to purchase online at electronics department, then pick it up at customer service, 30mins later. This is a ridiculous issue.
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The new (this week) holiday policy is described in detail here, along with the regular policy: http://www.pricematching.us/index.php/price-match…
This should make price matching easier for the rest of the shopping season.
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Total and complete BS ! Im so pissed. I get online find a good price on something at Walmart.com and of course it says it is sold out online and says it is in stock at my local Walmart. I drive 60 miles round trip just to find out that the thing cost 20 dollars more at the local store. Im sick of them saying price match and they wont even match their own prices! At the very least they should have it show the instore price before people drive out to find it is higher. This to me sounds like a total ripoff and should be illegal!
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