When I wrote my post on Five Ways to Save on Groceries, I briefly touched on the fact that Wal-Mart provides you the opportunity to do all of your of your shopping in one place and still utilize sales from other stores.
As many of you may know Wal-Mart does not always have the lowest price on the things you buy every day. The great thing about Wal-Mart though is that they will honor the sale prices at any stores in the immediate surrounding area. That is the first catch, you can’t try to match the price to a piggly wiggly in Alabama when you live in Tennessee.
They will match the advertised price from any competitor provided it is the same item in both places, you can’t match Tyson chicken to Sanderson Farms. I find it works great for things like chicken breasts, and pork chops. It really helps because generally each of the different stores will run their sales different weeks. That way you can get the same sale price, at the same store, two weeks in a row. The key to this is timing the sales and purchasing enough of the sale product to last until the next sale date.
The more you track the prices you are paying for groceries, including sale items, the more you will notice a cyclical nature in the pricing of products. Once you have this cycle figured out you can easily plan your meals and amounts of products you will need.
An added advantage to Wal-Marts low price guarantee is you can use it on items other than groceries. If you see a killer sale for your favorite video game at Best Buy but know that it is going to be crazy packed you could just swing over to Wal-Mart, toting your trusty ad, and price match to get the same price as all those people waiting in line.
There is an art to pulling off the price match so that you can cause as little disruption in the check out process as possible. You aren’t going to be able to price match every item in your cart so set the items you do wish to price match off to one side. When you have placed everything else onto the belt put your price match items on the belt and put your ad on top of the items. This makes makes your intentions clear to the checker and ensure you don’t confuse them by trying to throw the items in in the middle of the madness. When they reach your items politely advise them you would like to do a price match for the items and show them the advertised amount on the ad. In my experience this usually results in a blank stare and silence. After they ask one or two people they will find someone who actually knows how to do it and they will come over and ring up your items.
Things they won’t match
Other Store’s Store brand items
Milk
Beer/alcohol
Other than those three things I have never had a problem price matching, and yes I really did try to price match a 12 pack of Miller Lite. Do you have you own experience with Price matching? Leave a comment and let us know.
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I have price matched on many larger items, but on the everyday items, I tend to not try quite as hard. I have found that many stores are more than willing to price match, and almost every store has the power to override prices. Last year, while purchasing a new toy for my guitars, the clerk at guitar center was searching prices on the web with me, helping get the best deal. He was great.
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