The Beauty Behind Price Matching And Why Its Easier Than Ever
By Jim Donovan
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Price matching can definitely save you money, but when is the last time you did it? As we find in today's 3 On Your Side report, it's easier than you might think.
Walmart, Best buy, Target the list goes on. When it comes to matching prices of competitors, big box stores have quietly been upping their game.
"These stores will match not just the local competitor's price that have local stores, but they'll also match specific online only stores such as amazon," said Kevin Brassler with Checkbook.org.
Dozens of smart phone apps help shoppers compare prices, among them, Red Laser, Price Grabber, even Amazon Price Check.
There's only one problem.
"It's estimated that fewer than five percent of shoppers take advantage of any kind of price matching policy," said Brassler.
Many are unaware of the policies. When secret shoppers at Consumers' Checkbook visited dozens of stores to test out price matching they made an interesting discovery.
"We were actually quite surprised. It was really easy and really fast to get them to match a lower price that we found elsewhere," said Brassler.
To get a price match at Walmart you don't even need to contact a human being. The company's own app, Walmart Savings Catcher, does it for you.
"They have their own app which lets you scan your receipt once you've checked out. And if it finds items for less elsewhere, according to its price matching policy, it will actually give you the difference in an e-gift card," said Brassler.
So the moral of the story is simple.
"You can realize some pretty big savings off quickly asking, will you match your competitors price?" said Brassler.
In fact the only problem Checkbook experienced with regards to price matching was at Home Depot. Home Depot says they'll match local competitors, plus beat them by ten percent. But the secret shoppers found that a manager usually had to be called and even some managers didn't know about the extra ten percent.
One common restriction is that stores will only match Amazon's price if Amazon is the seller. It can't be a third party seller on Amazon.
To access the full price matching report, go to Checkbook.org/CBS3/PriceMatching