Price-matching is the spawn of the devil.

[Meganjo23]

So, a while back, I went to the local Wally World to grab a bunch of stuff. I can't remember what all I was there for, but I remembered that I really just wanted to get back home. I get to the check out and end up behind this guy who has a bunch of little bottles of Dawn, and a bunches of a few other items. I figure they've got a sale or discounted prices on these items and he's stocking up. Great. He's also got a flier for CVS with him. Crap.

Well, Mr. Deals gets to the cashier and tells her that he can get his things at CVS for cheaper, as shown in the flier, and thus she needs to price match his things for him. She looks at the flier, and tells him that because the prices they have only apply to card-holders. He snerks back that since you can just walk in and get a card with no fuss (which is true, more or less), she should still do the price match. No, they can't, because the CVS price is members only, and is not part of WW's price match offer. Well, they just hand out the card like candy, so why can't he get that price on his things? Yes, but since you do have to fill out a form, it doesn't matter that they give it to anyone that asks.

This cycle repeats about ten times. I start glaring at this guys back, hoping that he'll accept that he can't get a few cent off his Dawn, and leave. No such luck. I sigh loudly, hoping he'll notice that there is a line behind him full of people that would like to be able to just pay and leave. Agian, no luck. Finally I start shifting around, sighing, and glaring all at the same time. Also around this time, the cashier calls over a manager to hopefully firmly tell the guy that he's not getting his Dawn for 7 cents cheaper. While he's waiting on the manager, he gives me a really sheepish smile and says "Oh, sorry!", in a tone that suggests that I should apprecaite his bargining, and should feel sorry for himt hat the cashier is being such a meanie-head and sticking to policy. Um, no. I want to go home. I'm not supportive of your bargining, or your buying in bulk tactic, because really, if you just bought the one you would save a lot more then buying a bajillion at 7 cents off. (OK, I just pulled the 7 cents out of my ass, but the discount he was trying for amounted to somewhere around there.)

Unfortunatly, when the manager finally get over to the register, she says the dreaded words... "Well... we'll do it just this once." Cashier looks annoyed, I'm annoyed, everyone except Mr Deal is annoyed. He is, in fact, very smug about the manager giving him the damn price-match deal.

Now, when I was working in fast food, I had that line pulled on me so many times I cringe when I hear it. According to my dad, corperate actually tells management to do this to give managers 'more authority' in the customers eyes. Um, what?

Also, several times during the conversation, Mr Deals pulled the, "But I could literally just walk in there, get the card, and get these for this price!". I was sooo close to telling him to just go there, then, and let us get on with our lives. But, alas, I hate confrontation...

[Bright_Star]

They always say..."But I can get it at so & so store for X amount". Well, if that's true then go THERE!
Price matching makes no sense to me cause if you can get it cheaper someplace else then it would make more sense to go there instead of being an entitlement whore.

[RetailWorkhorse]

But I can get it at so & so store for X amount".

And I like to stand there (in line with them) and deadpan "Uhm, no you can't."

It makes them sputter.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

At my store, he wouldn't even have to have that argument with the cashier. We'd just take his word for it and give him the price match.

Yes, my store does price matching. ALWAYS HAS, ALWAYS WILL.

[chahuahuas]

ohmygod YES. im a newbie and i just searched 'price match' for a place to rant, and apparently this was posted earlier today.

price matching is indeed the spawn of satan. when i was still on the register (i have since been moved to the warehouse, thank jeebus) customers would walk up with a new release CD and say 'check Best Buy and Target first. I bet they have it cheaper.' apparently i am required to waste time of the other shoppers in line at their request, verifying the price of these CDs at several other stores via online searches.

also, customers who walk in with a best buy ad for a single item, when best buy is conveniently located ACROSS THE STREET. it would be my biggest pleasure to tell these customers to cross the street, but these entitlement whores would most defintely complain to management that i was being rude.

i suppose the other stores could be out of stock sometimes, but theres a convenient part of our price matching policy that requires the item to be IN STOCK at a reasonably close store...

[tropicsgoddess]

When I was a call center rep for Pet Meds, I would be barraged with calls from SC's that wanted a price match. The company had a policy where if the competition's price was lower than ours, we'd match or beat it with free shipping (they have the free shipping thing if the order was around $39 or more in general..except for the perishables that were packed in ice and hopped on a Fed Ex plane) provided they had a way for us to verify it: competitor's website and/or phone number (for vets) and another thing was if the competition was a U.S. company due to safety and legal reasons. Reps were only able to do it to a certain point, but once it got to where it was below company purchase cost, only managers could override it at their discretion. There were times I didn't mind it because it would help me get some bonuses for the sale, but there were times I loathed it. I only loathed it where the SC's would make me lower the price to obscenely low amounts and scream at me when I couldn't go any lower than the company purchase cost or couldn't do it at all because they didn't have any info for the managers to verify the price match and/or the competition was a foreign company. If they're nice and in dire need of it for their fur baby, okay. If they're being sucky about it and don't have the info to back it up per policy, then they can shove it. Since after leaving that place, I see price matching as the bane of retail.

[Sliceanddice]

hmmm that doenst sound right, last time ai checked wallyworld will only not price check %offs and BOGO.
but if it was awhile ago that might have been it then, because now they will match anything because more often than not the customer will leave.
I know this from one of my moms sites for food storage.

[Meganjo23]

hmmm that doenst sound right, last time ai checked wallyworld will only not price check %offs and BOGO.

It wasn't a discount or anything like that, it was that you could get the dawn for a lower price IF you had the CVS membership card. I only referred to it as a discount for sake of ease. Cause I'm lazy like that.

And I really just don't get why customers can't just go to the store with the lower price. I mean, wouldn't that be easier all around? And, hey, if the membership card is so easy to get, then why don;t they just get one? These are things I will never understand.

[Sliceanddice]

ahhh ok. thanks that makes sense.

[sld72382]

Price matching only makes sense if the store gives you an extra 10% off. Otherwise, just go to the original store.

That happened in Circuit City earlier this year, they had a camcorder I wanted for $299, on their website it said $249. I showed them the web page printout and they price matched plus gave 10% of the difference off, resulting in a price that was cheaper than the online outfits.

[chahuahuas]

Price matching only makes sense if the store gives you an extra 10% off. Otherwise, just go to the original store.

That happened in Circuit City earlier this year, they had a camcorder I wanted for $299, on their website it said $249. I showed them the web page printout and they price matched plus gave 10% of the difference off, resulting in a price that was cheaper than the online outfits.

i actually work at circuit city, haha. what you did with the web page printout was really smart, coming prepared, adn i wouldn't mind that kind of price matching at all.

i really just hate those who take a shot in the dark for a store with a lower price. 'uuhh maybe next door its cheaper?' and on clearance CDs or something really small. i don't think anyone would like their time being wasted like that, really.

[Kogarashi]

The real benefit of price matching is when you are buying a lot of items, and only a few are cheaper at other stores. It's easier, and better on your wallet and gas tank, to get everything at one store with price matches on those few items than to truck all over town to the different stores to get the deals.

Buying just one item on price match when the store with the lower price is easily accessible? Dumb and lazy. I've only bought a single item on price match (no other merchandise purchased) when I would've otherwise had to drive 30+ minutes out of my way to get to the store with the deal. (Yay for living in the boonies.)

I've only ever once heard that the price match policy didn't include the membership card items, and that was as a customer and not an employee. I've also heard on other trips the following:
- price match policy only includes membership card items
- price match doesn't include matching Wal-Mart's store brand (Great Value, Equate) with other companies' store brands (i.e. Stop'n'Shop brand mac and cheese)

As an employee, I'd never heard any of these stipulations. The only rule we had to adhere to was "No %-off deals, and no BOGO without a "buy one at" price listed." And, of course, matching volume/weight and product type and brand (store-brand to store-brand counted for that).

And holding up the line over it isn't cool. I would have definitely wanted to talk to a manager were I the customer in the OP, but I would've tried to find a way to keep from holding up the line behind me. Either buy everything at the listed price and do a price correction at the Service Desk once the manager rules in your favor (assuming that happens), or put everything back into your cart, talk to the manager when they show up while the rest of the customers check out, and then get back in line and have everything rung up.

[Sliceanddice]

i under stand it was Xcents off, not a price, so if the product was xcents more expenseive ot begin with it wouldnt be matched