I'm in the Elkton, MD store for an oil change, and I also needed to buy a pair of cheap safety goggles to use with my new hedge trimmer. While waiting for my oil change, I went on the website to see if the price was reasonable, and I found what I needed for $3.26. I went to the aisle to get them and saw that the price was $3.38. Normally I only buy food in Elkton, because while it is only about 1.5 miles away, I live in Delaware where there is no sales tax. The New Castle, DE store is about 10 miles from my house, but I pass by it periodically, so if I want to buy something other than food at Walmart, I buy it there. But because this was something small and I wanted to test the hedge trimmer as soon as I got home, I was just going to pay the extra $0.20 in sales tax.
I knew that Walmart had some sort of price match policy. I did an online search and found it at https://corporate.walmart.com/askwalmart/does-walmart-price-match. The policy says "For items purchased in a Walmart U.S. store, we will match the price of the identical item advertised on Walmart.com. Restrictions apply" The restrictions didn't appear to apply to me. When I went to pay, I informed the cashier, she told me that the online price matching ended 3 years ago.
From what I'm reading now, it seemed that the cashier was wrong. I probably should have asked to speak to a manager. Being angry about this stupidity, I decided to order online and pick it up at the store. After ordering, I saw it would take several hours before I could pick it up. I wasn't going to wait around for it, I wanted it right away, and the 3 extra miles driving home and coming back later would cost more in gas than what I saved. So I cancelled the order, went back in the store, and purchased it for the higher price. When I got home, I went online to the Delaware store and ordered another one online, at the cheaper online price and no sales tax. I was going to pick it up at the store the next time I was passing by, but it said that they only hold it for 4 days and I didn't know if I could pick it up before then. I switched to delivery to see if there was a charge, and because I am a Walmart+ customer, it was free. (I only have Walmart+ because their $49 deal was cheaper than the cost of Peacock.) Once I get the goggles, I'll return it the next time I go to the Elkton store, using the Elkton receipt for the higher price.
So either because Walmart was trying to gouge me out of 12 cents, the cashier was stupid and/or untrained, management is incompetent and doesn't train their employees properly, or some combination of all 3, someone is going to have to go out of their way to deliver a pair of goggles to my house, then someone at the Elkton store will have to process my return, when I bring it back with the higher priced receipt. I suspect that the extra cost to Walmart will be more than the cost of the goggles.
It's nice to be able to order things online, but most of the time I prefer to go into the store to get what I want and maybe look around a little as well. I shouldn't be penalized with higher prices for doing that. Plus there are a lot of elderly people that are not computer literate and can't order online, and perhaps some poor people that don't have a computer and can't afford a cell phone or only have an old-school cell phone with text and calls only.
I normally go online to do price comparisons and/or to find out the price of something I'm looking to buy, to see where to buy it. If I'm in the store shopping, I don't typically go online to see if it's cheaper on the website. I think from now on, I might have to do that.
As a point of comparison, I had the same problem trying to buy the hedge trimmer at Lowe's yesterday, because when I went to the store to buy it, I found that the sale price was online only, and it was a special buy with a price difference of $80 ($49 vs. $129) as opposed to 12 cents. Once they found where the model I wanted was located (way up on top of the shelves), the process was a lot easier. I did have to purchase it online and select pickup from my phone while I was standing there next to the employee who was helping me. The difference was that when I went to the pickup desk to explain the situation and asked if they could expedite things so I didn't have to come back to the store, I was able to get the hedge trimmer about 5 minutes later. I was there when they took it down from the top shelf and they handed it to me. I asked for a receipt so I wouldn't be accused of stealing it when I walked out of the store, and he printed out a pickup sticker for me from the device he had on him.