Amazon Prime is one of the most popular ways to shop to get access to some of the lowest prices around. By paying $14.99 per month, Prime members get access to exclusive pricing, plus free and fast shipping, access to streaming services, and more.
But what happens when you want to buy something at Walmart but pay the same price you could pay at Amazon?
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Will Walmart Price Match Amazon Prime?
Unfortunately, Walmart does not price match Amazon Prime.
In fact, Walmart doesn’t offer price matching or price adjustment for any prices that require membership. Because Amazon Prime requires a paid membership, Walmart will not match any prices advertised exclusively to Amazon Prime customers.
That said, if you find a standard price listed on Amazon.com, you can request a price match for this price when shopping on Walmart.com.
How Price Matching Works At Walmart
The best way to learn about Walmart’s in-depth price match policy is to check out our post about it here. You can also read Walmart’s full price matching policy here.
Here are the basic things you should know about the policy:
- Walmart offers price matching both in store and online
- Walmart stores will price match Walmart.com but they will not price match competitors or other Walmart retail locations
- Walmart.com will only price match businesses from their approved list of online competitors (see below)
- Walmart will not price match promotional, clearance, holiday, or sales prices
- Walmart will not price match prices that require membership to access
- Walmart will honor one price match request per customer per day
Price Match Exclusions
When shopping in person at Walmart, the following limitations apply to price match requests…
Walmart will not price match the following for in-store purchases…
When requesting a price match online, Walmart’s policy is a little more flexible, but there are still quite a few exceptions.
For online price matching, the following limitations apply…
For price match requests made on Walmart.com, Walmart will not price match the following:
Stores That Walmart Will Price Match
Walmart retail locations will not price match other stores. However, they will price match Walmart.com or offer price adjustment for their own prices if a price drops within 7 days of your purchase.
When shopping online, there is a select list of online retailers that Walmart will price match.
Walmart.com does not price match prices from brick-and-mortar retail locations.
Walmart’s Price Adjustment Policy
Walmart’s Price Adjustment Policy follows the same basic rules as their price matching policy, with just a few differences.
The most important thing to know is that price adjustment is not available for online purchases. When requesting a price adjustment in person, Walmart will only price adjust for prices featured on Walmart.com or at the same Walmart store where you made your original purchase.
To learn all about price matching at Walmart, read our post about it here.
Walmart Price Match Workaround
Recently, some bloggers have been incorrectly reporting about a supposed workaround to get Walmart to price match Amazon Prime.
According to these sources, you can convince an employee at a Walmart retail location to price match Amazon by signing out of your Prime account so they can’t tell the price you’re showing them is a members-only price.
Unfortunately, this “hack” presumes a couple of things that wouldn’t work in reality…
First of all, Walmart retail stores don’t price match competitors. So, they’re not likely to care whether you’re showing them an Amazon Prime price or not. If you ask them to price match anyone other than Walmart.com, they’ll just say no.
Second, even if this workaround could work, you’d be relying on the employee to not read the product listing closely. It’s clear when you read a product listing on Amazon whether a price is available through Prime or not, so you’d be relying on the employee’s carelessness.
Basically, this supposed “workaround” doesn’t even begin to work.
FAQs
Does Walmart price match during Black Friday?
No. Walmart’s price match policy excludes promotional or holiday pricing, including Black Friday sales.
Will Walmart refund if price drops?
Yes, in some cases. If you purchase something in person at Walmart and the price for that exact item drops within 7 days of your purchase, you may qualify for a price adjustment. However, the price must drop on either Walmart.com or at the same Walmart location where you made your original purchase. Post-purchase price adjustment is not available for online purchases, and Walmart stores will not price adjust for prices found at other store locations.
Does Walmart have to honor a mismarked price?
No. In most cases, Walmart will honor a mismarked price if it’s clear the mistake was made by a Walmart employee. However, if the Walmart associate you speak to has reason to believe you may have switched the price tags on purpose, you will not be granted the lower price and you may also be accused of shoplifting. Switching price tags to get a lower price is considered a form of theft.
