Wal-Mart announced today that it is getting serious about "one stop shopping." It is simplifying its price match policy so that customers no longer need to bring in competitors' ads to have prices matched. In other words, smart shoppers who used to do all of their shopping at Wal-mart with ads from Cub, Rainbow, Target and Menards can now leave those ads at home, provided the customer knows them and asks for the price match.
"We want to error on the side of the customer," said Bloomington store manager Scott Rothi. Case in point: As soon as I heard this was the new policy, I had doubts. I vaguely recalled that either Cub or Rainbow has Coke on sale this week 4-12 packs for $10, a good deal. So I took the Coke to the cashier and said "Either Cub or Rainbow has these 12 packs of Coke on sale 4 for $10."
"Okay," the cashier said, "that's $2.67 each, right?"
"2.50 each," I said.
"Oh, right," he said and rang them up without any further questions.
BTW, it's Cub that has Coke 4 for $10 this week (with a coupon).
There are a lot of smart, demanding customers out there, so I expect Wal-Mart's cashiers are going to be tested mightily. If a customer insists that a competitor's price is a lot lower than Wal-Mart's price, the cashier can ask for a manager to approve it. While I applaud Wal-Mart's "we trust you" price match policy, I worry that there will be too many prices that need "manager approval" if the customer doesn't have the competitor's sale flier to prove it.
Remember when Target instituted its price match policy? You might not, because few people use it. But those who do have complained loudly to me about its exclusions. At last check, Target will not match BOGOs, non-branded items such as green grapes, store brands, store coupons such as $5 for a 24-pack of Coke, online prices, free products such as "Buy Cheerios and get a gallon of Kemps milk free." The list goes on.
