Until earlier this year, Target had a generous price match policy. In-store, Target would price match almost any competitor for almost anything, such as local grocery stores for groceries, specialty retailers for beauty and personal care products, Best Buy for electronics, Home Depot and Lowes for tools, etc. (The policy was significantly more restrictive online.)
In August 2024, Target eliminated almost all price matching. The retailer will now only price match Amazon (sold and shipped by Amazon only) and Walmart (sold and shipped by Walmart only). They also price match their own prices from Target stores and Target.com if the price has been lower in the last 14 days.
You can see full price matching details on Target.com at this link. Target stopped price matching entirely in Alaska and Hawaii.
This is a significant change for some people who relied on the previous policy to get the lowest price on everything at Target as a one-stop shop.
Thanks to reader RM for bringing this to our attention.
I think it’s still YMMV. I just read successful PM in-store on Bestbuy list price for Anker power adapter
Why are Alaska and Hawaii always excluded from everything?
Hawaii has the highest cost of living in the US so they’d probably lose money doing it, not sure why Alaska though
Alaska also has an intensely high cost of living because of basically the same reasons, a large distance to the rest of the US.
Distance/discontinuity over land is likely the real reason, not cost of living. Look at how many promotions are excluded Puerto Rico, which has a significantly lower cost of living compared it other areas of the US. Despite that, it is still often excluded from promotions.
Neat! For pickup only, you can still just price match Target.com to another Target location. No customer service involvement needed. Works great if you live in Alaska.
I fully support any move they make to stay profitable. We can’t end up with a duopoly by Amazon and Walmart.
“Id like to return an item I bought yesterday, in its original packaging, unused, with the receipt, that I paid for with cash”
No one:
Target: Cool, here’s a gift card.
Walmart refused to price match Walmart.com
Walmart employees are usually uneducated and rude people. This is common in large retail stores. Just look for store managers and find some more educated employees.
I saw some store managers also not honoring the price match from walmart.com. I ended up ordering online and picking up later.
Have you seen the recent WM ads? They’re leaning full in on the ‘people of walmart’ meme, “If you don’t live in a trailer park, we don’t want you shopping here.”
I love the trailer trash aesthetic.
I’ve had that happen before. Just completed the purchase and went over the service desk and they refunded the difference. But as
David said, if you can get a store manager, it can be done at the register.
Home Depot refused to match their website price in store as well.
This policy is written clearly in their website along with the reason.
Which policy are you referring to? What reason? Walmart’s policy, subject to a few restrictions, is to match walmart.com.
Purchases Made in a Walmart U.S. StoreFor items purchased in a Walmart U.S. store, we will match the price of the identical item advertised on Walmart.com. (Restrictions apply – see below)
The following conditions and limitations apply:
Sorry, we do not match:
they also wont price match beyond a certain percentage. there have been a couple times where they refused to price match amazon because the sale price was too much compared to the regular price. i want to say 50% but i dont remember exactly. it wasnt a lightning deal or anything of the sort, they just legit have a cap on % off which is crazy
Stores identify loss leaders to get people in the door, and set things up to maximize that. I’d guess it’s not in Target’s interest to lose money on someone else’s strategy that they haven’t prepared to offset.
Added note, In store Target uses a dedicated website for Amazon and Walmart price matching. I attempted to price match what looked like an identical product from Amazon vs. in store but apparently the UPC code was different even though the product description and pictures were the same (same size, color, no bonus items, etc.). This was a simple OXO kitchen tool, not a fancy appliance and apparently even they have slightly different models/UPCs for similar products depending on the store.
At this point I assumed every price match is a crapshoot due to every store selling a different UPC
Super common with Walmart. There was a scandal years ago when the identical box Walmart version of power drills were garbage quality but at a lower price with another UPC.
This is true of retailers everywhere though. Manufacturers can issue different UPC for the same product to track older inventory, which often have lower price points than newer inventory.
Also, the C in UPC stands for code. Saying “UPC code” is redundant, like saying “chai tea” or “naan bread”.
Interesting info. I’ll have to look more into this when I get back from getting money from the ATM machine. Hope I don’t forget my pin number.
Ok grandpa
So this news is four months old?
Yeah, but nice to know about. I didn’t use it often but I sort of trusted Target for certain purchases due to this policy.
This is a very slow week because of the holidays, but Will and Chuck are pretty slow to begin with. This is why you’ll see them post deals for things that expire in 4 hours or yesterday.
why are you even here?
Who shit in your stocking?
Take that back! Will and Chuck are flawless angels and can do no wrong!
That’s such an unfair statement. There are so few times where a deal expires quickly because of various reasons. I’ve saved and profited thousands because of this website.
Don’t bite the hands…