Walmart: No More Price Matching At 500 Stores (Starting June 9th)
Attention Walmart shoppers! Effective June 9th or possibly sooner in some areas, Walmart will be ending their Price Matching Program at over 500 stores and instead will be implementing long-term price rollbacks on thousands of items. For more information, check out this article published by Business Insider.
Walmart is hoping more customers will now be encouraged to use the Savings Catcher App, a tool that scans your Walmart receipts and compares the prices you paid at Walmart to the prices advertised for the same items elsewhere in your area. If the app finds a lower advertised price, Walmart will issue a gift card in the amount of the difference.
I hated when my store stopped price matching but I have since come to love savings catcher. In the last year I have already earned over $100 with savings catcher.
Savings Catcher is a sham. It makes you feel like you saved a lot but if you add up what you would have saved by price matching, you’ll realize savings catcher doesn’t compare. Just yesterday I bought 20 lbs of quality hamburger patties from a local store and saved $100 based on Walmart prices. Savings catcher wouldn’t catch that because Walmart doesn’t price match meat anymore.
I also hate savings catcher. 90% of the things I buy don’t “qualify for the program.” I only shop at Wal-Mart when I absolutely have to because I can get much better prices practically anywhere else.
I agree with you
One of the reasons I tend to use Wal Mart is because several of our local stores don’t do ibotta or a couple of the other rebate apps, and they’ll consistently have lower prices than Wal Mart on those items. So, I pricematch them at Wal Mart, get the lower price, and can still submit for the ibotta rebate.
If my local Wal Marts decide to stop price matching, I will probably stop shopping there. Getting a 50c rebate on an item that’s priced 75c higher than at another store isn’t a deal and isn’t worth it.
And this also means that I will probably wind up getting less in ibotta rebates as well. The past 5 months, I’ve been cashing out about $20 per week on ibotta, which has really helped us get some “fun” or “splurge” items (like Dollar General shopping sprees because you can pay with PayPal, or a few take-out places around here where you can order through PayPal) so that’s probably going to drop to maybe being able to cash out once per month at most.
Overall, very disappointing.
This exactly^^
I love the savings catchers app….last year O was able to pay our xmas shopping with it! I open a blue bird acct. have them transfer the difference there and bingo! Same as at Target buy the promos with the 5 to 10 dollar gift cards safe them and bingo again!
Karen what is a blue bird Acct? I always just have them put it on a Walmart GC. Is there another option? Thanks!😊
Bluebird is an American Express loaded able, prepaid card, it’s an alternative to a checking account.
The WM GC is the easiest, especially if you don’t need another account..there’s no longer an incentive to use Bluebird and Savings Catcher.
There was a time that when you transfer your earnings with the savings catcher to bluebird, it doubled the value. It ended last year or maybe the year before that.
And the money earned on the bluebird from savings catcher can only be used at Walmart.
This is just another way to make it more difficult to save. You must have a way to scan or enter the receipt and load it. Not everyone has a smart phone with unlimited usage or WANTS one. I will be shopping at Walmart less. Might as well patronize the store with the lowest prices.
I dont have a smart phone but use savings catcher! You can enter your receipt number on their website.
It’s likely more about collecting data than making it harder to save. Not that that makes it any better though lol.
Right Jen, *especially* if the store with lower prices is a local store trying to save its community some money and stay in business! Better to give the business to your neighbor, who will go down the street and spend those dollars which invests in your own community.
Yes exactly!! Please don’t shop at greedy Walmart and keep feeding that beast!
Exactly!!! I hate that place!!! I refuse to shop there. We have a new one going in less than 4 miles from me. I will not give them MY money….they come into towns….put so many businesses OUT of business….then they keep the majority of their employees without benefits and in the poverty level so they can receive state and local assistance…then…the employee takes their assistance money BACK to hellmart and spends it there!!! WIN WIN for hellmart!!! And my list of hates for that place goes on and on………..
This is very unfortunate, my store will price match any local ad but the Savings Catcher only checks big name stores in my area. Does anyone know where the actual list of what stores are stopping is at?
I just read an article that’s says Walmart is currently refusing to say which stores.
Yes, this is me. I live in a smaller metro area and savings catcher is a joke for me. The only other “big name” store around here is Kroger. I always price match with the smaller grocery stores. If they quit price matching, I will just shop at Kroger. It is nicer and the staff friendlier.
Talking to Wal-Mart stuff. ..in my area cashiers in Wal-Mart extremely rude AND uneducated on any policies. Im hard core cuoponer and can find Good deal on anything, but only money maker deals might get me to door of those stores. It’s not worthy my time and my cuopons to deal with people Agendas. GO CVS and Publix; )
I have to second Publix. We moved last summer and no longer have Publix, and I miss it terribly. Sounds silly, I know, but that is the BEST grocery store, IMO.
I’ve only been to publix twice on vacation and I miss. It’s a great store.
It is a great store and with the ability to use 2 coupons on a BOGO, you can really score some deals.
Oh, No! This saves me from shopping different stores a week. In my experience savings catcher doesn’t catch the deals on produce. I’m so disappointed. Looks like I will be shopping less at Walmart.
Exactly! Produce and meat. I won’t be shopping at Walmart anymore if this is the case. I do all my grocery shopping there for far less than I would at any other stores thanks to price matching. The savings catcher only catches a few dollars per trip on non-produce or meat items.
I used to price match all the time. I shop less at Walmart because they stopped price matching meat and store brands last year. I end up going to 1 or 2 stores a week but my budget is still about the same without price matching. I hope people don’t give in to savings catching because it really doesn’t work the same as price matching.
Im pretty sure meat and produce have been excluded from savings catcher from the beginning or for a great while.
This is crazy. I ALWAYS ALWAYS price match at Walmart. It saves me from going from store to store to get the best deal. Savings catcher doesn’t find all of the deals either. So this is inconvenient. I hope my store isn’t on that list!
Agree 100% with your comments! I price match each week at Walmart and they have gained so much business from me over the years. If they don’t price match and Savings doesn’t catch the deals, I have no problem going store to store to get my weekly purchases, which means that they will lose my “additional” business in the meantime as I’ll be buying “non-sale” items at the other stores instead of Walmart.
I used to price match at Walmart every week. Most of my grocery budget was spent there. Last year when they changed their price match policy, it excluded most of the items I price matched. Now I go to the local stores and buy most of my groceries there. I go to Walmart once or twice a month and spend a small amount there.
Honestly, savings catcher app does the same thing without the hassle of needing to point out every price difference at the register. Plus(in my area at least), savings catcher looks at many more stores than I even get weekly ads for.
Savings catcher does not do the same thing. Savings catcher no longer matches drug store prices or produce prices so Shoppers will lose those deals
Savings catcher is a farce. Walmart is exploiting the fact that when you price match you don’t usually know the total amount that you’ve saved. The savings catcher gives you number but it doesn’t tell you which items you saved on or which stores they use. It also doesn’t match meat, produce, and store brand items. That’s where most of my savings come from.
Savings catcher does tell you what item you saved money on and what store it was on sale at. You have to click on the receipt.
My SavingsCatcher says it’s looking at 63 stores every time I submit a receipt, but time and again I’ve noticed where it’s not actually catching the price differences. For me, price matching saves a ton more money AND the money I save can be used anywhere. Savings Catcher, it only catches a very few things, and I can only use that saved money at Wal Mart. Not a great deal.
I have tried the savings catcher on items without price matching it and the savings catcher never caught it so i always price match when i am there. No more walmart deal shopping for me.
I agree.
Not a fan of savings cAtcher. They don’t compare it to all the local competitors and even when they say they do, a lot of matches are not on there. I noticed it was much better when I loved in a different location
Very disappointed. Savings Catcher doesn’t always “catch” the prices. I’ve tested it. I bought 2 of the same item and price matched one and then used the Savings Catcher and it didn’t “catch” the other item. When I contacted Customer Service and sent them the ad they still wouldn’t give me credit. We have 1 “big” grocery store in our town and one national drug store chain and the Savings Catcher doesn’t work for the drug store 🙁
Consumerist did a good review of the Savings catcher recently…
https://consumerist.com/2014/09/26/does-walmarts-savings-catcher-actually-work/
Too many people were pretty much stealing product using those 3rd party Amazon prices.
If the cashier gave them a third party amazon price, that is walmarts fault for not training their employees, IMO. The cashiers here check to be sure the price they are matching is indeed an item sold by Amazon and not a third party seller.
If Amazon price matching were the issue they have done away with that part of the program and not the whole thing.
I am not a walmart shopper but I do scan my brothers receipts (they live with me) to see if it catches anything. I am so sad to see this go away since I know other people use it. I hardly ever shop at walmart cause the other stores in my area are cheaper so it won’t affect me. The last time I shopped at our walmart they would only take one coupon on like items. They told me I would have to go through the line again to use the other coupon since only one like coupon is allowed per transaction. It upset me since it was a long line so I haven’t been back.
When Savings Catcher first started & they doubled the earnings I loved it but now I get annoyed every time I submit a receipt. They tell me no lower prices were found most of the time. Just looked at my account & since Sept 2015 I’ve submitted 19 receipts totaling about $2000. On 13 of the receipts no lower price was found & on the others I’ve earned a total of about $4.50. I’ve also noticed a lot more receipts end up saying they weren’t accepted or whatever the error they give you is but by the time they say that I’m past the 7 day submission deadline. It’s free money so of course something is better than nothing but I don’t think it’s a fair exchange for price matching at all.
I’ve started doing most of my shopping at Aldi and HEB and feel like I’m getting better food at better prices.
This is very disappointing. I also use price match because savings catcher does not catch my stores in town only seems to catch big stores(only 2 in my area shaws and kmart) Collin is there a way to check to see is your store is on the list?
Yes I’d like to know which stores are discontinuing price match
As a former cashier at Wal-Mart, I”ll just say this, scammers ruin everything for everyone. If people wouldn’t make fake ads to price match to and then use photocopied coupons this wouldn’t be happening. It sucks for all the good people who are just making one less trip.
Wow people make fake ads. Some people are certainly crazy!
Most Walmart’s doesn’t require a ad. I have been behind a few that make up Ridiculous prices. Once there was a guy in front of me with a little boy. He got a buggy full for hardly anything there is no way he could have remember every price in that buggy really teaching his kid to be dishonest and really stealing .
Luckily, where i live there are walmarts on every corner. Fingers crossed at least one close by is not on that list!
Guess they will be losing customers then! Sometimes that is the only reason I even go!
Given the inaccuracies and the fact that it misses the regional grocery chains, I’m VERY disappointed to see that they think the SavingsCatcher is a replacement to price matching. That’s a mistake Walmart!! I maybe forced to shop at Walmart given they have driven stores out of my little bitty town…but I can buy less or I can drive a further 20 minutes and really stock up where the lower prices are. The price-match has talked me into “splurging” where I wouldn’t have normally. And the price match has saved me the trouble of shopping online and opting for in-store pick up because prices ONLINE (Walmart.com) are always cheaper than my store! (Had a friend who’s Walmart.com account got hijacked and they had crappy customer service, so since then, I pulled my CC info and everything off my Walmart.com account. Won’t shop there if I can avoid it!) Sad….the article says they could be facing backlash….I’d say so!!
I use my pay pal account to pay for items on Walmart.com as it is safer.
If your paypal information is ever hacked it’s a NIGHTMARE though. Paypal requires you to link to your bank account. In less that 24 hours my bank accounts were completely drained via paypal in 2010. Overdraft protection made it drain my savings in addition to my checking. And ACH transfers are allowed to overdraft your accounts so not only was all my money gone but I owed my bank more money. Although Paypal was good to work with my bank was useless (by nature ACH transfers are authorized…). I still use Paypal but I don’t necessarily think it’s more secure and actually adds another layer of complication when left happens. In their defense Paypal refunded all my money not my bank. Just my two cents from a nightmare with Paypal that I will never forget
What Nikki said! 🙂
HIP HIP HOORAY! I am so glad they’re doing this. I’ve always avoided lines with folks price-matching because takes so long waiting for customers to go through so many different fliers for their items.
Man, those people really suck, trying to save money and make their grocery budgets stretch.
My dad always complains about people price matching & using coupons. I’m just like “Dad, I am one of those people. Please respect that I’m trying to save money and feed my family.”
Gosh I never understood why people get irritated by smart shooters who save $. That’s why there are multiple checkout lines. Look away if you don’t want to see me save. 😄I’m proud to save our family money. Hey, pay retail if you want…Keep working while we retire early!
You’re a douche and I don’t understand why you’re on this site if you’re not here to try and get the best deal /save money.
I really don’t think it will amount to be the same! I would rather have them price match. That’s more cash in my pocket, not Walmart credit! Of course they want to switch, they don’t mind lowering prices as long as the money saved is going back into their store 😉
I never used savings catcher. I shop at Walmart maybe once a month for items I can’t find. About 80 percent of the time, if I wait for a sale, I can get the same goods at grocery stores or drugstores cheaper. For example our local IGA is offering a dozen large eggs for .58 this week. Last week it was Yoplait yogurt for .28. Plus giant eagle and kroger always have free weekly items or other free product coupons.
I tried price matching last week and was told by the cashier “we don’t do that any more”. I guess my store must be on the list and he thought it had already started. Sorry to see this end.
Typical move. They have taken back each and every way of getting a lower price in the last few years. They used to price match without an ad (remember those commercials? The signs at the register?), then you needed* the ad, then the ad couldn’t be from a drug store, now it can be from a drug store but it can’t be a loyalty card price. Savings Catcher started off great…compared everything from every store…then they wouldn’t compare produce & dairy, then meat, then drug stores & local chains…an on and on. Price matching (with my ads in tow! Because I hate Savings Catcher now) saved me from going to the local chains, store to store, finding cleared shelves, and a looooong shopping trip. Now, I am just going to add up prices for what I need for the week and shop at the local store with the better advertised sale. I will end up paying more for some things each week, but I am not going to shop at Walmart, nor will I return to the days of going to more than one place.
This is awful! We don’t have national grocery chains here so the grocery stores we have aren’t even listed on savings catcher. We only have Target, Dollar General and the Pet stores.
I am 90% sure this decision was made in strong connection to my local store. Google the news story “Disabled man fired from Walmart for giving hugs.” Or find the Facebook group Hugs For Frank.
Recently, one of my small town’s most beloved Walmart cashiers was fired after nearly two decades of loyal service and strong work ethic, the reasons given were for excessive price matching and giving too many hugs to the customers (he always asked permission first). In reference to the price matching, he himself would memorize the competitors’ ads and always remind the customers to price match, saving many people so much money. He was reprimanded by his supervisors for this behavior and then corrected it, though apparently not well enough to appease them.
He was very loved by many and his situation brought out a strong showing of support, he has since landed another job at a local grocery store and brought dozens of loyal customers along with him.
I just read several of the articles. What a shame after nearly 20 years of service…and “excessive price matching” seems like a very weak reason for termination. I am glad that he is loved by the community and landed another job so quickly. Hopefully he is just as happy there for the next 20 years! Best wishes Frank!
Agreed! So sad, but glad he found another job so quickly. Hoping they treat him better!!!
In the town I use to live in I shopped at a neighborhood market and there was a young 20-something cashier, a mother, that would always check us out (they only usually had one cashier and we shopped the same time every Friday). We always talked and it was nice. She always told me what I could price match, milk, eggs, bread, etc. One mom trying to help another mom out. Well, we went in and she was no longer there and the new cashier didn’t know what happened to her. I bet it was similar to this situation. That makes me sad.
I was just at my Walmart yesterday, price matched an item, then wanted to use a coupon and they said, ” you can not use coupons on any items you are price matching”. Does anyone know if this is a new rule too? I have not had any problems doing this before.
Something like this happened to me recently. I price matched & used coupons for those items, and then she scanned the coupon & it came back with an error message. She actually overcharged me by ringing up the item again to try the coupon again. I was distracted by my son & when I looked at the reciept at home, it was a mess. Voids left and right. I couldn’t make sense of it. I wonder if when she did the price match override, it somehow affected the item and therefore the coupon? No idea. The whole thing made me want to stop price matching there but going to multiple stores with children is exhausting. 😕
Yes!! A code came up with me too!! And I agree. Going to multiple stores with little kids is hard. But I also hate waiting in line at Walmart and not getting the deal I wanted! 😀
Some customers (like myself) often look forward to the instant saveings that pricematching gives to make our budgets stretch for the month.we dont have the luxury of waiting a,week or two for a saveings catcher match…bummer😕
I skip it and do savings catcher anyway. I had over 150 last year that I used for Christmas shopping. Already up near 100 for this year!
I do like savings catcher because it does save a lot of time, but it doesn’t match produce (think Aldi) and meat which is where most of my savings add up.
Went to Walmart yesterday and tried to price match with Amazon as I have done the past 2 years on almost every trip there and was told they don’t price match Amazon…what? I told the manager that I have always done this and she said it has always been their policy and I have shouldn’t have been allowed to in the past. I find it hard to believe that the various cashiers I went to over those 2 years all let me do it if that wasn’t the policy!
When I worked there it we could price match 1 item to Amazon per customer per day, no third party sellers. They were strict about that too.
Looks like Walmart wants to push people to use their app. Not everyone has a smartphone. Looks like Target will get more of my business.
I haven’t shopped at Walmart in months, I’ve been using Target, CVS or Walgreens. I’m getting toiletries super cheap at CVS or Walgreens, no need to go to Walmart. Is there a list of the stores that are not price matching anymore? It’s always a pain to price match at Walmart, sometimes it works and sometimes you get a giant stickler who insists on checking out all the ads, pouring over all your coupons, meanwhile the line behind you is 10 miles long and everyone is mad at you.
Yep! Produce is all I price match as well, and Savings Catcher won’t cover those prices…
Bye, Bye Walmart! Looks like I will shop where the sales are now. Between boycotting Target and no more price matching at Walmart my shopping trips will take less time. Savings catcher is a joke. I turned my receipts in checking to see if they gave me the sales amount and I didn’t even get a penny from that receipt.
Great thanks to all the people who misuse coupons! Soon we won’t have any savings
I live out in the country where there are few stores that Saving Catcher “catches” as competitors, but that I can use the ad to price match. This truly stinks. I do use Saving Catcher with some success, but, it does not “catch” my local Piggly Wiggly, Walgreens ( I know that is nationwide), and some other smaller stores. I do the extra legwork by price matching in order to make up the difference.
Is there a list of stores showing which ones are doing away with the price matching?
So I will vote with my dollars and shop somewhere else. No price matching, no shopping at Walmart. It’s that simple.
Apparently its fiscal year 2015 net sales of $482.2 BILLION (which were an increase over the previous year) were not enough? [sarcasm]
No shock, back in HS we learned how Walmart was started and what it has become now and how much damage it does to our economy. That was 12 years ago so I can only imagine how bad it is now. Greedy company.
Angela…thanks for sharing the profit numbers–I love the sarcasm too! 😄wow that is a lot of benjamins!!
Mine stopped last year apparently. I stopped shopping there following that. The local Walmart used to do B1G1 frees so it was worth the trip to price mat,h on many items but now there is no reason to shop there unless I am looking for a headache and uncontrollable rage😂. Thanks to apps like Hip2Save, Ibotta, SS and others I save money and don’t have to deal with Walmart at all.
How do we know if our Walmart is one of those 500? I guess just ask the managers? or is there a list somewhere?
When savings catcher first started, almost everything was included. First, they quit matching drug stores like CVS and rite aid. Then it was meat and produce. The old “bait and switch”.
Savings catcher is great but it doesn’t always price match. They stopped price matching produce, which for me is what I save the most on when price matching in the store.
I haven’t shopped at Walmart since I watched the films “The High Cost of Low Prices” and “Is Walmart Good for America”. No corporation is perfect but their tactics are extreme….
I have used Savings Catcher from the beginning but Walmart is shady. I missed out on a few months of savings last year because the app just would not process my receipts. It would say the receipts were too old when I scanned them the day I shopped and you have 7 days to scan them. I also got errors saying that the store I used had not started using the program yet when I knew that to be incorrect because I shopped at the same store every week with no issues before that. Customer service gave me the run around so I quit using it for a few months then went back to it and it was fine. They don’t match everything that qualifies either.
I primarily ad matched produce from Aldi because Walmart typically has better quality produce than my local Aldi. Savings Catcher doesn’t do produce. I’ve been shopping at Walmart less and less lately and it looks like that trend will continue.
I agree Walmart is only on a need to basis. I love shopping at Kroger, & at Target. Without Price Matching I have no need to go. I absolutely do not believe their prices will be low enough to replace PM.
Yeah, dont really shop there and i always try to avoid going to walmart.
Hopefully Walmart lowers their free shipping requirements as well! Their better priced products (ie: clothing) are not in my local stores. But I’ve had numerous bad experiences with the free ship to store option (to get a cashier to the pickup area and for them to find the product, it takes 15-20 mins).
I only use SC for items I didn’t know were on sale. It’s not really saving in my opinion if you have to spend the money first and then get back the difference. I’d rather PM and not have to spend the money at all!!