"Match it"

[Bright_Star]

I can't stand that Wal-Mart commercial about price matching. They make it seem like all the customers have to do is say "Match it" in a sweet tone of voice & it'll be taken care of right away.
I'll betcha dollars to donuts that THIS weekend there will be a TON of SC"s running into wally world DEMANDING that they price match whatever & saying something about that commercial. It's not gonna be pretty.

[Snowbird]

I already had a lovely time two weeks ago waiting behind a woman with a full cart of groceries, in a packed WMart, whipping out a local grocery store ad to match way too many prices. It took forever, and it was freaking hot in there. If the other store has such great prices, go to the other store, woman! Good grief.

[Kheldarson]

"Match it" is good, in theory. With proper controls, it means that a customer can spend less time and money doing their grocery shopping, without inconveniencing other customers. However, the way Wal-mart does it, it means a headache for everyone involved, except the customer matching stuff. And it never fails that half of their items will come from another store for matching. *headdesk*

[Kanalah]

I've been asked at a craft show if I price match.

It broke my brain the first time I heard it. The second time I asked which store. Of course it was Walmart.

"Okay so you want to pay the same price for a custom designed item made by a local artist as you would for a mass produced item made by a small child in india/china?"

Of course.

[Kogarashi]

However, the way Wal-mart does it, it means a headache for everyone involved, except the customer matching stuff.

No, no, it's a headache for the price-matching customer too, at least if you don't resort to being an SC about everything. We've tried price-matching on our groceries before. No two managers can agree on what exactly gets to be matched. One says it's only the stuff that requires a store rewards card to get the deal, another says it's only on the stuff that doesn't require the rewards card, yet another says that Walmart's store brand can't be matched for Kroger's store brand (despite my own manager when I was cashiering saying that was valid because Walmart does not and will not ever carry Kroger's store brand, it being a store brand and all).... Hubby and I finally gave up because we kept getting the runaround whenever we went to the store, and could never get a straight answer on anything.

[blas]

My neighbor, who just quit his job at WalMart about a month ago, told me that they don't price match "gimmick" prices, like when the local grocery stores get desperate to compete with Wal-Mart and have those sales with 18 cent dozen eggs, 55 cent loaves of bread, $1.98 12 packs of soda pop, etc.

And he said that people go absolutely batshit when they are told that those kinds of sale prices are not matched at Wal-Mart.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

My neighbor, who just quit his job at WalMart about a month ago, told me that they don't price match "gimmick" prices, like when the local grocery stores get desperate to compete with Wal-Mart and have those sales with 18 cent dozen eggs, 55 cent loaves of bread, $1.98 12 packs of soda pop, etc.

And he said that people go absolutely batshit when they are told that those kinds of sale prices are not matched at Wal-Mart.

Then why even have the policy? "Gimmick" can mean anything corporate wants it to mean.

Price matching is stupid anyway.

[blas]

I totally agree with you.

I don't even bother comparing, because Wal-Mart IS always cheaper. Sometimes in the mail I see that the local grocery stores are having those gimmick sales, but their other prices are so much more, it's not even worth it.

[emt_cookies]

I really think it depends on what you get since some of Wal-mart's prices aren't cheaper, but then we have 4 grocery stores within a half mile of each other so it's competitively shopped in the area.

I know in 2009 the official policy was that they only matched competitors, which are decided by corporate, and that they had to keep a copy of the competitors' ads at the service desk. We didn't usually follow that policy at my Wally-world.

My favorite was one lady from a store about 10 miles away. She brought in an ad from a local chain started in my hometown that had about 2 stores in this city 2 hours away from my local town. The store itself was about 30 minutes away from this store. Well, it's Black Friday and the Zone Manager said no to the ad because it wasn't a local competitor. Well, the lady throws a bitch fit and let's it slip that she works at that store 10 miles away and they accept the small chain's ads. She was lucky the Zone Manager had walked away and then decided to change her mind since I doubt she would've if she heard the lady complaining about what the 10 mile away store does.

[tropicsgoddess]

Ugh...price matching ...and that damn commercial! I can see tons of SCs and EWs coming in demanding price matching at insanely lower prices than normal or below purchasing cost.

[Dreamstalker]

"Okay so you want to pay the same price for a custom designed item made by a local artist as you would for a mass produced item made by a small child in india/china?"

This is why I stopped listing my jewelry on ebay. I make chokers with as much "real" material as I can: bone, horn, glass, shell, metal, etc. It's clear by the photographs that these are NOT plastic (for one, it looks a hell of a lot nicer), and I outlined my materials.

A basic three-row choker without fancy beads or designs is $25. At least twice a week I'd get a buyer screaming "you're a ripoff! [Chinese seller] has the exact same thing for $4.98!"...then they'd have the balls to ask later "will u sell this 2 me for $5?"

[Muses_nightmare]

Gah I hated price matching when I worked for [Canadian store that starts with a Z]. Since I was in a small town that was 6 hours away from anything that could be considered a "city" they only price matched for stores that were in town. So of course we'd get people bringing in fliers from stores that were in the city 6 hours away, and of course we had to tell them that we wouldn't price match for them. Then hear them bitch, but hey, it's not like they could have gone to the other store anyway.

We did do a lot of price matching for Wal-mart though, at least until the store closed because of Wal-mart.

[underemployeed]

Wait, they don't price match gimmicks.... which is basically all sale items, I really really hate the corporate whores who come up with a simple policy called "match it" and then I'm sure it has a 356 page list of amendments and stipulations like only on the 4th of july if a herd of elphants is running through the store, and the girls gone wild bus is in the parking lot and just bought all the KY

[Dreamstalker]

Yeah, most gimmick/one-off sales have a few inches of fine print that nobody (well, except me) ever reads. A small computer store chain used to pricematch WM, BB, etc but no more. I guess people were coming in on Black Friday expecting them to match an ad because "it's a [manufacturer] and it looks the same, gimme!". The only matching they do now is for processors (every week they adjust their pricing to match Newegg)

By that logic I should get an XBox Elite for the same price as an Arcade version I saw on CL...it looks the same and I have the ad, right? -_-