Price Matching...

[beercashier]

I hate price matching. IMHO If you find a better price, drive over and buy it there! To price match at your store, you must bring in a current ad from another distributor and it must be for exactly the same product (not cans for bottles, etc.)

Last night we had a customer who bought beer LAST week at our store for $16 bring in an ad from another distributor who is selling the beer THIS week for $14 and he wants us to refund the difference. He was told no by the Assistant Manager and the guy got mad and pulled the "I spend a lot of money in here" line. (He does, but every time he comes in he is a huge pain in the a$$) He is going to talk to the big boss today, but the answer is still going to be no. That is not at all in the spirit of price matching. I think we should completely get rid of price matching.

This idiot is going to spend more in gas trying to get us to give him $2 and I'm sure he is going to state "its the principle of the matter." WTFever.

[chainedbarista]

"its the principle of the matter."

it seems that this principle is backed by the stupidity of wasting even more time/money/gas/brainwaves just dealing with the issue; why is it that a measly discount of less than five dollars triggers this in some people?

(maybe a defective section in the brain??)

[Boulder_Bear]

car parts for cheaper

Once my wifes mini-van broke down and I had to buy a new starter for it. What I did is that there are two auto part stores that have price beating policies. One is they will beat the price by 5%. One of the stores had the starter for about half the price of the other. So I went to the more expensive store and told them about it, they verified the price and told us what the price would be after the 5% price beat. I then took that written offer and went to the other store and the other store gave me another $5 off. All together I saved about $100

[batmoody]

Last night we had a customer who bought beer LAST week at our store for $16 bring in an ad from another distributor who is selling the beer THIS week for $14 and he wants us to refund the difference.

We wouldn't be allowed to do anything like that on alcohol or tabacco. Not that we do any price matching anyways, but sometimes people want us to substitute, or (we have that checkstand accuracy thing) they want it free cuz it rang up wrong, We can't do that either. Or accept returns on it. Its an alcohol/tabacco thing only. So they are sol.
I also hate when they bring in competitors cupons and want to redeem them. We never have accepted competitors cupons. Of course, "They let me do it before!"
Yeah right. The damn thing isn't even recognized by our system. Quit lying, or you're going to hell.

[Imogene]

I used to get those people all the time.
"Do you price match?"
"Nope."
"It's cheaper at WalMart."
"Yup, and censored, more than likely."
"What? No it's not."
"Actually, it more than likely is. WalMart seems hell bent on being the moral censor for the world. I've had people try to return Sopranos boxes to us, and we found out after it wouldn't ring into our system that the set was censored, which is something we have no control over. Not to mention how often they force record labels to censor their music to sell it in the store."

[Format C]

If you think that's bad, my DM told all the stores in the district to price match immediately, no questions asked.

[Clintmax]

One of the stores had the starter for about half the price of the other. So I went to the more expensive store and told them about it, they verified the price and told us what the price would be after the 5% price beat. I then took that written offer and went to the other store and the other store gave me another $5 off. All together I saved about $100

Dude...that is SO wrong! That sounds like fraud to me.

[Jack T. Chance]

Dude...that is SO wrong! That sounds like fraud to me.

Actually, it's called being a smart shopper!

Even though I've worked in retail for about 16 years, I have absolutely NO problem using price matching to my benefit, because, after all, I work in RETAIL! Therefore, I'm POOR compared to people in other career fields! So, I use price matching where I can to save money. For example, Best Buy and Circuit City both have pretty much the same price guarantee: If you find the same exact item advertised for less by a local competitor within 30 days, bring the ad in and you'll be refunded the difference + 10% of the difference. On consumer electronics, that can save you a LOT of money, and I use it to my advantage when necessary! And there's absolutely nothing at all wrong with doing so!

Still, if your company does NOT offer price matching, that is their choice and their legal right. There's no LAW saying that price matching must be done, despite the outright LIES customers may tell you to the contrary!

[karma_gypsy]

People act like they want us to price match. We're a pawn shop you can make offers, but we're Wal*Mart, we're never gonna be Wal*Mart, we're nowhere near Wal*Mart so stop comparing us to Wal*Mart.

This guy came in earlier today, a real true jerk. He wanted to trade some DVDs, "I'm sorry, we don't do trades, but you can sell them to the store in the back . . ." I pointed where he could go.
Then he started going off about trades . . . yadda yadda yadda. So I'm just like, "yeah, whatever," kinda.
The he started saying, "I can't buy them either?" wha? we're just talking about trades a second ago, there was no "buying" in the conversation.
"Yeah, sure," just let me drop everything I'm doing and help you out. Right, he also mentioned he was going to be about $200 worth of DVDs (he had five he wanted to 'trade' in).
I help him out, get the DVDs he wanted (with no complaints) he got about 17, nowhere near the "$200" mark he was claiming.

He goes to the tool section and is interested in a socket set marked at $99. It's been out awhile, long enough to make an offer. He offers $79 if he puts it on layway or $69 if he buys it now. Huh? I've never heard that kind of offer before, but "I'll talk to the manager."
I told her the situation, she knew exactly who I was talking about. She said, $89.99 ("but he isn't going to like it") (she's a cool manager, btw).
I relay him the price, "oh well," he starts, "I was in here like a month ago and I offered 79 bucks for it and they took it. Are ya sayin' you're goin' higher?"
A month ago? Are you kidding?
"Sorry, the owner and main manager aren't here right now . . ." Plus it was a MONTH AGO. You're not suppose to make an offer, put the item back and then come back a month later. That's not how it works. How do you to expect that we are suppose to remember your face a month after you make the offer? Ironically, enough, this situation has happened more than once.

[pbmods]

Dude...that is SO wrong! That sounds like fraud to me.

What is the point of price matching? Why, to get you to shop at our store instead of the competitor down the street, even though the advertised price down the street is lower.

Why is price matching good for the store? 'Cuz not everybody knows about the lower price, and the ones that do will shop at your store anyway.

Why is price matching really not that big of a deal to the bottom line? It's kinda like how manufacturers can still afford to offer 100% rebates. Not everybody takes advantage of it, and the business gets so much money as a result of sales generated from the extra advertising that it totally offsets the free product they give out.

When you use a system to your advantage, *especially when it is manager's discretion whether to honor it or not*, believe me, you are not abusing it. In fact, you will always be in the minority. 90% of my customers don't even bother to look for coupons in our weekly ad that's sitting *right in front of them on the counter* (oops... who left that there? )

Customer acquisition costs are high; by knocking $10 off the price, they got you in the door and gained a few hundred bucks of your business. The other guys got nothing.

[Tito]

This idiot is going to spend more in gas trying to get us to give him $2 and I'm sure he is going to state "its the principle of the matter." WTFever.

Exactly! Doesn't the idiot understand that with the price of gas these days, he'll probably spend more than $2 going back & forth to the store like that???? Oh, wait, silly me. That's too logical. Logic & SCs don't mix.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

What is the point of price matching? Why, to get you to shop at our store instead of the competitor down the street, even though the advertised price down the street is lower.

Why is price matching good for the store? 'Cuz not everybody knows about the lower price, and the ones that do will shop at your store anyway.

Why is price matching really not that big of a deal to the bottom line? It's kinda like how manufacturers can still afford to offer 100% rebates. Not everybody takes advantage of it, and the business gets so much money as a result of sales generated from the extra advertising that it totally offsets the free product they give out.

When you use a system to your advantage, *especially when it is manager's discretion whether to honor it or not*, believe me, you are not abusing it. In fact, you will always be in the minority. 90% of my customers don't even bother to look for coupons in our weekly ad that's sitting *right in front of them on the counter* (oops... who left that there? )

Customer acquisition costs are high; by knocking $10 off the price, they got you in the door and gained a few hundred bucks of your business. The other guys got nothing.

That's exactly it. Plus, while the customer is in your store taking advantage ofthe price match, he/she may be buying other things at full price.

It's good AS LONG AS you have to prove a competitior has the same item for the lower price by bringing in an ad or whatever. Some stores don't even require that. I've seen stories on this board where customers can tell the employees that store X has the same item for Y price, and the employee has to take his/her word for it.

[Knightmare]

If you think that's bad, my DM told all the stores in the district to price match immediately, no questions asked.

My store (Lowe's) not only price matches and beats the price by 10%, we will also take coupons specifically for the competitor. I was ringing up a customer the other day buying a large amount of lumber and building products. He took out a coupon for *specific location* Home Depot, and I had to take it.

No skin off my nose. I'd rather have the business; have MY stock go up rather than Home Depot's.

[Naaman]

When I was at Game they had a pretty cool (annoyed illiterate SCs) price match.
No internet, has to be a store within a reasonable distance and they must have it in stock. Obviously that last bit was the funnest as we were often allowed to go to other stores and check and we knew most of the staff in the regular places (Argos, WHsmith, Dixons) so for popular release items we could find out how many they had out back\reserved.

[AmericanZero8503]

I used to get those people all the time.
"Do you price match?"
"Nope."
"It's cheaper at WalMart."
"Yup, and censored, more than likely."
"What? No it's not."
"Actually, it more than likely is. WalMart seems hell bent on being the moral censor for the world. I've had people try to return Sopranos boxes to us, and we found out after it wouldn't ring into our system that the set was censored, which is something we have no control over. Not to mention how often they force record labels to censor their music to sell it in the store."

I HATE when they drop the "It's cheaper at Wal-Mart" line. Well go there for crying out loud, stop wasting my time. I don't care if we get shut down, I still have 12 months of unemployment, which would last me just fine till graduation. Then Wal-Mart will just jack up their prices anyway. I have about as much concern for the grocery store I work at, as I do with a kleenex.