HOUSTON – When you are shopping for big-ticket items, you may check prices at several stores and online to make sure you get the lowest price. KPRC 2 consumer expert Amy Davis went shopping to show ‘Ways 2 Save’ with one simple click.
From shoes to clothing to household appliances, everything has a barcode and a price on the shelf. But did you know those prices don’t always match?
First stop: Target. Amy stopped in the small appliance aisle and went straight to the air fryer section.
“This one says it’s on sale for $59.99. And here it’s marked $79.99,” Amy found.
Here’s how you can check the prices. Just open the Target app and scan the barcode for anything you want to buy. If the price on the app is less expensive than the price in-store, Target will honor the lower price at the register. By just randomly scanning items, we found a price difference between an air fryer and Tommy John’s underwear.
“On the app, these are $14.99, but the shelf here says they’re $17.99,” said Amy Davis about the underwear.
The toy aisle had several items with different prices.
“This $14.99 firefighter Barbie was $14.99 on the app and $16.99 in store,” Amy shows.
Ratoria Hogans and her Barbie-loving babies were impressed.
“I use the app, but I never thought to scan it to get the price match,” said Hogans. “Now that I know that might be my new best friend, right because that’s where we’re here for toys every week!”
On this trip alone, they saved $8 on one Barbie and $5 on another!
“So it’s 22.99 and we’re gonna get it for 14.99. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you so much. Here!” said Hogans.
All you have to do is show the app price at the register!
But don’t expect the same results everywhere. We tried the same hack at Walmart.
“We found this Bluey dance and play plush doll. It’s $30 online,” said Amy.
The in-store price is $49.97! That’s $20 more! At the register, the cashier told us if we want the online price, we’d have to buy it online.
Clearly, not all retailers will honor their online prices in-store.
In-store vs online price compare policies for popular stores
We’ve checked with the most popular big box stores to let you know which will and won’t honor prices you find online: