Don't Be Rude About Price Comparison, Walmart

Once upon a horrible time, I worked at Wal-Mart. Comp prices were
always a very tricky area. As a cashier, we weren't supposed to
question the customer, but there were people who tried to comp items
unfairly - so stricter rules had to be made. At first, if a customer
walked in and said that Kroger had milk on sale for such and such
price, we just had to punch that in with no questions asked, but some
people weren't honest. Then, you have problems with quantity, brand,
etc. Now, for you to get a comp price you have to match the brand and
size exactly.

There is a difference between the Kroger brand and Tyson, which is why
the cashier couldn't give you the comp price. Sometimes, there are
comparable off-brands, so there might have been a different brand of
pork ribs you could have gotten for the price of Krogers', but that's
tough to say.

Sadly, the cashier had to refuse the comp price because, if she had
done so and was caught, she would have been the one in trouble. I'm
sorry you feel you were treated rudely.

The workers shouldn't have been rude but I understand why they didn't
match the Kroger price. If the Kroger ad didn't have a brand name
listed then it would not be price matched at WalMart for the Tyson
brand. With all of the time you spent in line at WalMart and disputing
the price couldn't you have gone to Kroger's and purchased the ribs?

I have never understood the concept of price-matching.

It is stupid.

If I want a price that is advertised at Kroger, I go to Kroger.

Going to Wal Mart because something is on sale at Kroger just seems
stupid and "EW"-ish to me.

Good luck on getting Wal-Mart to do anything about rude employees. I
have had cashiers to be extremely rude and let Wal-Mart know, did no
good. My daughter had an experience where she had paid for items and
went through self check to get a drink and a cashier/cashier support
person followed her to the door and accused her of not paying for the
items. She had receipts and was in the process of showing them to
the door greeter. No one ever called her back on this matter although
she reported it to customer service and a manager was supposed to
contact her.

So, again good luck.

In what way were the three ladies rude? In what way did they have
poor customer service?

The problem is that even though you can use shorthand like saying
"So-and-so was rude" to people who know you -- because they know what
sorts of things you consider rude and they know whether they tend to
agree with you about who is rude in which circumstances -- when you
use shorthand with people who don't know you, they don't know what you
mean.

A lot of people think that being told "No" by an employee in a store
they're shopping in is automatically rude. But many people, including
the people at the corporate office who want policies enforced even if
customers don't like them, and also including me, do not. When you
say "So-and-so told me 'No.' She was rude," then, it's pretty easy to
assume that you also think being told "No" is a form of rudeness. If
that's true, then I completely disagree with you and I expect
WalMart's corporate office to agree with me.

But maybe that's not the rudeness you're talking about. Maybe the
co-manager interrupted you mid-sentence, said "Um, no," and turned
around to whisper and giggle with the other employees. Maybe you
didn't hear most of the whispering, but you heard a few nasty names
and the phrase "thinks she can get Tyson for ninety-nine cents." If
that's the case, then I agree with you: she was rude to you.

But if you don't describe what happened, I can't form an accurate
judgment about whether or not I agree that the three ladies were being
rude, and neither can whoever is going to read this email at WalMart's
corporate office.

I hope that if you don't mean that being told "No" is automatically
rude, you will rewrite this letter with more detail, because WalMart
needs that detail in order to take appropriate action.

Price matching between stores is generally tit for tat...meaning it
has to be the same brand, basically same sized package and so on. And
if they run out of stock they may give a rain check or have a
comparable product available instead.
Krogers own brand of pork ribs was on sale...but Walmart does not
carry Kroger brand...they carry Tyson. So Walmart is correct on this.


I also do not see where these employees gave you poor customer
service. It seems that they stated that they were not going to change
their comparison price policy and you did not agree with it.

I shop Walmart only for comparison shopping sometimes and if they
offer a good sale on something I need.

I agree with other posters here. In order for Walmart to price match
the ad, they would have had to be selling Kroger pork ribs at a higher
price than the Kroger ad.

You wanted Walmart to price match on non similar items. Price match
guarantees are for the same exact item.

All meats are not the same and have multiple grades and qualities. You
are asking them to match a Jif peanut butter ad for a purchase of
Skippy or "Great Value". The items have to be the same. What you
attemped is like going to a Toyota dealer and asking them to match
prices from a kinda similar GMC.

Others have said it, ill say it again : "NO" does not equal "RUDE"

They ARE sticking to their policy. You aren't.

Here's to hoping that this truly is your worse customer service EVER.

There are ALWAYS stipulations when price matching. Most stores not
only expect it to be the same exact item, but sometimes they won't
match it if the store selling it isn't a "like store" (meaning a
"non-grocery" Target has Oreo's on sale, Giant Eagle may not match
it)

Here is WalMart's policy: (from Walmartstores.com)

Price matching

Our goal is always to be the low price leader in every community where
we operate. Our customers trust us to have every day low prices ...
there's no need for "special sales."

Our unbeatable promise:
Store managers make the final decision in always taking care of our
customers, but we do have guidelines for matching our competition.

We do honor "Preferred Shopping Card" advertised prices. Must be like
items, be advertised and require a competitor's shopping card, for the
discount to apply.

We do not honor advertisements that require a purchase in order to
receive the advertised price or free product.

We do not honor "Buy One / Get One Free" advertisements.

We do not honor double or triple coupons or percent off
advertisements.

We do not honor other retailers' "Misprinted" advertised prices.

We do not honor Internet Pricing.

We do not honor competitor advertisements from outside of the store's
or Club's local trade territory.

It says clearly - MUST BE LIKE ITEMS. They can't verify that it is
Tyson meat at Kroger, so they don't have to match it. It also states
that the manager has the final say and he said no. That's not rude.
He was simply making a business decision for his store.

At the end of the day, you still could have gotten the meat at Kroger.
Sometimes getting the good deals means putting in a little more
effort to get it.

Just because she didn't get what she wanted, the employees are
considered rude. If places fired and disciplined every employee
because they took every customers word calling the employees rude,
then there will be a turnover rate 40 times a day. You don't deserve a
price match, sorry.

Unfortunately instances like this happen. You shouldn't take it
personally. I tried to price match ground beef before and was told I
couldn't because Walmart didn't know what grade beef was on sale since
the flyer didn't mention it. Annoying, yes, but fully within their
right. It also makes sense business wise for them.

The Wal-Mart employees shouldn't be rude about a price match even if
they have to refuse it, but you shouldn't expect them to match the
price on items not of equal value. Expecting them to give you a name
brand for the sale price of a store brand is not logical.

I do know that Walmart is trying to get away from Matching Ads, but
the small amount of people that do it, are very vocal.

They take a hit on their profit margin everytime they do it, same
thing when grocery stores run out of an ad product are the customer is
issued a raincheck.

Say Ribs are on sale at a grocery store and the store runs out of
ribs.

If you are given a raincheck for that item, the store loses money when
it is redeemed.

The allowance for the price cut is only for the time that the ribs are
on sale. Anything after that the store has to incur the shrink.

My beef is that the buyers sometimes do not order enough to back the
ad, or the company itself runs out of their product. Either way, I am
out of the product and take the heat.

Most of the time I just take it and apologize. I have learned if you
try to explain to customers what happened you are just "making
excuses"


Good Day

I agree with the other posters who all seem to be in agreement so far.


And every time a "price match" issue comes up-even when they accept
it-it seems to be a hassle. I bet in the half hour you spent at WM
you could have gone to Kroger to begin with.

I think the only time I would use a price match is if the store that
had the item on sale was out of stock, and the competitor had it in
stock-and even then it might not be worth it to me-it would have to be
a big savings. But, that's just me.

It's simple, unless the Kroger ad specified that the ribs they had on
sale were the same brand that WalMart sells, they are not going to
price match.

"All three of the ladies were very rude"
A firm "no" does not equal rude. You obviously did not qualify, and
the management has the final say over pricing at the store. It sounds
like a decision was made based upon the available evidence at the
time, which did not specify a brand.

And like the ladies said - you could get the ribs at the price you
wanted if you went to Kroger. I still don't see how they went against
their word.

I worked for a company that did price matching. The policy was that
the items had to be identical. Brand, size, model number, etc. in
order to qualify for a price match. In your instance, Walmart did
nothing wrong since it was not the same brand. You waited in line for
nothing.

This seems like an easy fix - go to Kroger, they have better meat
anyway!

"I explained to her the ad did not show the name brand of meat"

Exactly. That alone says the meat was the store brand, and thus
exempts it from the price match policy.

I don't see how someone explaining the policy = rude. I'm on the side
of these employees 100%.

No doesn't necessarily mean rude. It sounds like they just explained
why they couldn't match the price.

"I explained to her the ad did not show the name brand of meat her
response was "exactly it must be Kroger brand." I did not want to
argue with her..."

The only argument that would work, I believe, is if you could somehow
see a "Tyson" label in the picture that she has missed when she
looked. At the price the assumption it was Kroger brand is a good
one. But the bottom line is if the ad did not specify brand, you
can't assume it was Tyson.

I don't think WalMart did anything wrong here. Honestly, the whole
concept of price matching I find a bit odd. I would be embarrassed in
this situation also, but I would blame the store.

So if Kroger is selling store brand coffee for $.99, you would expect
Walmart to price-match Maxwell House? Walmart was right. If Kroger had
been selling Tyson ribs for $.99, then Walmart would have to price
match if that is indeed their policy. Price matching, as I understand
it, if for the EXACT item - brand name, size, etc. Not just a generic
idea.

Phyllis,

Think about it for a moment. You were asking for a price match to
Kroger's house brand versus WalMart's
"top" brand. This is an apple vs. orange comparison.
You do not deserve a price match.

BillR.