walmart .com - prices less than in store?

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I was looking at car batteries and the walmart.com prices seemed less than what is in my local walmart. is that common? if you buy a battery and it is old can you refuse it?
 
My local wal-mart had a sign that stated something to the effect that Wal-Mart.com prices are lower, and to shop online to save money.

I think its a pilot program to get more people to shop online. They are trying to compete with Amazon, and likely want more shoppers to shop online, so the lower online prices are likely an incentive to attract customers.


Originally Posted By: edwardh1
I was looking at car batteries and the walmart.com prices seemed less than what is in my local walmart. is that common? if you buy a battery and it is old can you refuse it?


I've had that happen several times at Advance Auto. When I walk in, I walk back to the rack to look at the date codes. Then when they try to give me the 9 month old battery instead of the fresh battery that's on the shelf, I swap the battery out and walk out with the fresh one. I once had a manager try to give me a hard time, but I told him "I have a receipt in my hand for a group 34 battery, that I have paid for. I am walking out of the store with a group 34 battery of my choice. You have a problem with that, too bad." There is no small print in the online purchase agreement that says that you must take the oldest battery in stock or whatever the store employee picks for you.
 
It can work both ways. I have seen online prices higher than in store prices, but that's not the norm.

All the batteries they sell now are scanned into their system for warranty, and if you lose the receipt they will still warranty it.

Yes you can refuse an old battery. When you go pickup, just go back to the battery shelf before pickup, and see what dates are on the new batteries, and then tell them you want a freshly made battery. If it has a made on date of last month, then I don't think it matters much.
 
In some instances it is cheaper on WMT.com, other times not. I was told they're two separate entities and they will do that from time to time. You can request they price match if you have the time.
 
It's not uncommon to have items priced this way. Online you are in a much more competitive environment than when the customer is in your store. Best Buy uses this tactic quite a bit. They will always match their online price but you must ask for it.
 
The two Walmart in the Reading, Pa area will not price match the online price/offer and have a sign to that effect.
So, I buy online and wait a few days.
 
Originally Posted By: bugeye
The two Walmart in the Reading, Pa area will not price match the online price/offer and have a sign to that effect.
So, I buy online and wait a few days.


Same thing here in my walmart in the Seattle suburbs. they don't do price matching. just order it online and have it sent to your house or the store.
 
I've noticed this a lot. It's infuriating because they don't advertise this at all.

There have been multiple cases where I saw a price on Walmart.com that didn't match what was in store. This is fine, but normally companies mark this with something like "online price". It's gotten so bad I just do store pickup on everything.

And it's not the pickup discount I'm talking about either, this is just the regular item price. If they advertise pickup discounts in big orange numbers I don't understand why they can't just say what the online price is vs the store price. It's not like it's a secret, it's just going to lead to people being annoyed and having to place the order when they get home and come back for it another day.
 
Barnes and Noble and many other retailers will not match their own online prices.
 
I worked for Walmart and I know that they want you in the store as much as they can. The premise is that a customer may only visit the store to pick up an item bought on-line, but there is a good chance that they might see something else on the shelf, or maybe they need to grab a carton of milk, or something similar.
 
I've noticed this too. Each time it happened the cashier was nice enough to match the online price.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
In some instances it is cheaper on WMT.com, other times not. I was told they're two separate entities and they will do that from time to time. You can request they price match if you have the time.


Depends. I price-matched something at the Wal-Mart near me in July and the clerk mentioned that the store would not be doing that after July 17. I was in there over the weekend and there are now signs that say "as of July 17, 2017, we no longer match Walmart.com prices." Or words to that effect.
 
Recently purchasing several items from Walmart.com for pick up I've found that to be true on some of them. On an outdoor extension cord, I made a copy and took it to the store and it was price matched at checkout.

You could do similar with a battery if concerned about manufacture date being most recent.

Local stores here have no signs about not price matching online price.
 
Originally Posted By: BigD1
...
Yes you can refuse an old battery. When you go pickup, just go back to the battery shelf before pickup, and see what dates are on the new batteries, and then tell them you want a freshly made battery. If it has a made on date of last month, then I don't think it matters much.

Just did this last month. Online price was about $4 cheaper than in store. Bought it online, went to the store, grabbed a battery made that month, went to the online order pickup counter and checked out with that battery.

As for stores not price matching online prices, that is a bunch of carpola. I had one that did not, so I ordered what I wanted online for free in store delivery and went and purchased what I needed that day.
When it came into the store, I went and picked it up, then returned it immediately with the old receipt to get the higher price refunded. They called the manager over because they would not initially do it (same manager that said they did not price match online). I got my money refunded, and have not been to that particular store since. No it does not hurt them in the least, but makes me feel better.

As said, the online price difference is for the online shopper to compete with Amazon. Many items between Amazon and WM.com are very similar if not identical, and fluctuate very quickly at time (10-20 price changes in a day sometimes). In store prices can't compete that way.

The newest WM near me pricematches online prices, did it 2 days ago with some bicycle intertubes ($2 cheaper online price). Just showed them on my phone and the matched it no problem.
 
i think it might be that it was taking too much time to check if the online price was true or not. walmart shoppers demographics i think tend have a lot of scammers .
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
I was looking at car batteries and the walmart.com prices seemed less than what is in my local walmart. is that common?


It's been like that for as long as I can remember. Their mobile app works great too.
 
Recently bought a Fram Fresh Breeze cabin filter there. Store price was $17 and online price was $10.
 
Originally Posted By: bubbatime
My local wal-mart had a sign that stated something to the effect that Wal-Mart.com prices are lower, and to shop online to save money.

I think its a pilot program to get more people to shop online. They are trying to compete with Amazon, and likely want more shoppers to shop online, so the lower online prices are likely an incentive to attract customers.


Originally Posted By: edwardh1
I was looking at car batteries and the walmart.com prices seemed less than what is in my local walmart. is that common? if you buy a battery and it is old can you refuse it?


I've had that happen several times at Advance Auto. When I walk in, I walk back to the rack to look at the date codes. Then when they try to give me the 9 month old battery instead of the fresh battery that's on the shelf, I swap the battery out and walk out with the fresh one. I once had a manager try to give me a hard time, but I told him "I have a receipt in my hand for a group 34 battery, that I have paid for. I am walking out of the store with a group 34 battery of my choice. You have a problem with that, too bad." There is no small print in the online purchase agreement that says that you must take the oldest battery in stock or whatever the store employee picks for you.


Agree WalMart.com offers lower prices; however, they use a very slow shipping method. I still prefer Amazon but I do occasionally use WM.com

As for the date stamp, do you mean the small month/year colored round sticker? That is not a manufacture date. That is the most recent time the battery was charged and inspected.

Batteries can sit on shelves at retailers for extended periods so each time the distributor drops off a new shipment of various batteries, they will routinely pick up any batteries that have a date stamp beyond 3 months (or 4,5,6 depending on the product). They take these batteries back to the distributor where they are inspected and recharged. At that time the old round colored date stamp is removed and a new one is affixed in its place. This can occur several times before the battery is actually purchased by us, the consumer.

Its entirely possible that the battery with the most current date stamp is actuslly the battery with the oldest manufacture date.
 
I just ordered a Flotec pressurized bladder well tank. Both WalMart.com and Amazon had the exact same price ($186.95)and free shipping. A good $40 less that what other stores or ebay wanted for the tank.

I chose Amazon because I have a rewards card with them. The Walmart one was 3-5 days shipping, Amazon one week.
 
in the past month, Walmart stock has gone up about %12 mainly due to their on-line biz. hope is that they compete with Amazon!
 
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