Stores have sales to try to entice you to shop at their store. However, with so many different stores and sales going on, it can be hard for a store to keep track of and be sure they have the lowest price. Their answer to this is a process called price matching. Price matching is where a store will allow you to purchase a product at their store, for their competitors price. By doing this, they are insuring you the best price in town, and with the hopes that they will gain your business, which they might not have had otherwise.
Like anything in the land of saving money, price matching can be a little time consuming. Most of the time you have to have proof of the competitors sale price. This proof is usually a sales ad. Then you need to go to the customer service desk or cashier and let them know what you would like to purchase, show them the ad and the competitors price. They usually will need to do some checking, maybe get a supervisor’s permission, and then of course they have to ring it up differently. A lot of little things adds up to time, and in the end, you probably will end up spending 20 minutes or more, getting a product at the price you want. However, if you saved $10 in 20 minutes, that ends up being, $30 an hour! No many people out there make $30 an hour.
Another great benefit is if you find a sale price you like at a store which doesn’t take coupons, you can take it to a store that price matches and accepts coupons, so you can get double the savings.
There may be some restrictions to price matching; it’s best to call the store to find out if they price match, and what are their policies.