Target Corp. tests a return to price-matching

By JOHN EWOLDT, Star Tribune

Last update: May 21, 2009 - 11:48 AM

After dropping its price-matching program in 2002, Target is considering bringing it back.

Target Corp. has started matching lower prices in competitors' ads in a pilot program in the downtown Minneapolis and Medina stores, as well as 22 stores in Orlando and 28 in Denver. If the program is a success, Target plans to make it nationwide in the fall.

Target dropped the program in 2002, a spokesperson said then, because too much time was spent verifying prices at checkout. This time, verification will be quicker, Target spokeswoman Delia McLinden said, because all matching is done through customer service, not at the checkout lanes.

Under the new program, customers must bring in the entire ad, which must be current. Competitors' prices that have expired will not be honored.

McLinden said the policy was brought back in light of the recession. "We want to speak boldly about value and low prices and give customers peace of mind," she said.

Rival discounter Wal-Mart, which has beaten Target in same-store sales for 17 months in a row, never dropped its price-matching program and recently began touting it in its advertising.

Typically, stores that match competitors' advertised prices have restrictions: no matching of percentage-off promotions, no doubling or tripling of coupons, no matching of "misprinted" advertised prices, Internet prices, nonlocal competitors, limited quantities, closeouts, or buy-one-get-one free coupons.

Neither Target nor Wal-Mart usually will match prices within its own chain, even though products such as baby formula often have varying prices at stores within a few miles of each other.

John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633

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