I’m so sorry that several of you had trouble with the Leapfrog Alphabet Pal deal at Target yesterday. I’ve done a good amount of research on why this happened and I wanted to let you all know what I found out.
Target’s list of exclusions in their price matching policy were originally listed HERE on July 12th of this year. The exclusions listed here are:
* Target.com or online retail promotion
* Competitor’s Free Product
* GiftCards
* Limited quantity items
* Open box or damaged
* Clearance or closeout
* Mail-in offers
* Services (warranties, assembly, etc.)
* Bundle offers
* Special order
* Sales-tax promotions
* Liquidation/going out of business
* Special financing
* Coupons
* Used or previously owned
* Display merchandise
* Pricing or typographical errors
* Club or loyalty
These exclusions, though, were only in their original press release (at the link above) and not listed out on their official “Price Matching Policy” page in their FAQ section. All the official page said was that some exclusions apply.
Yesterday, after Target got bombarded with calls and emails about the Toys R’ Us 2-day ad, they decided to make their policy clearer, so they added the following to their price-matching policy page (which originally just said that some exclusions apply):
* Online retail promotions or products advertised on another company’s web or mobile sites, even those advertising in-store prices.
* Competitor’s free product, bundled offers, or special purchases
* Gift cards and coupon-required offers
* Sales tax promotions
* Timed events (e.g., early bird, doorbusters)
* Limited time or quantity items
* Damaged product or opened packaging
* Clearance or closeout items
* Prices advertised only as a percent off or $ off
* Mail in offers or instant rebates
* Product services (warranties, assembly, etc.)
* Going-out-of-business liquidations
* Special financing
* Used or previously owned items
* Display merchandise
* Pricing or typographical errors
* Club or loyalty programs
* Owned brands (i.e., Home, Merona, Circo, Market Pantry and Archer Farms)
* Mobile coupons
* Target Portrait Studio, Optical, and Clinic offers
In addition to adding “doorbusters” and “early bird” sales to the list, they also sent out a memo to the stores yesterday telling them not to honor “doorbuster” ads.
This is completely within Target’s rights as a company, even though I am disappointed in their decision.
I hope that helps to clear things up. Please feel free to leave a comment with any additional questions – although I can’t guarantee that I’ll have an answer. 
I guess I’ll be doing my Black Friday price-matching at Walmart again this year…
Does Walmart have the samed “timed sale” exclusion? Will they price match on Black Friday???
@Anna, Not that I’ve seen. Walmart should also price match the Black Friday sales (I’ve done it in the past).
They sure will! Walmart’s price-matching policy is awesome & very clear cut. I added the link to the Walmart policy in the post above, but I’ll copy and paste it into the comment here as well:
* 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.
@Rachel @ Surviving The Stores,
I know the policy for walmart, but my question is……. Are customers responsible for submitting proof of a sale from another store?
please email me with response if you can. thanxxxxxx
@Anna, Yes, you have to bring in proof (i.e. the printed ad) from another store to get the price matched. This is true for both Walmart and Target.
I guess it’s a good thing that Target is figuring things out, rather than the case-by-case deal we have going on now. Still, I had a coupon rejected yesterday because the particular Pepp Farm cookies I chose didn’t match the picture on the coupon (from Target site). I really think they have to fish or cut bait — either agree to do coupons and price-matching or have none at all. I hate to get to the register and wait and see.
Would a 2-day sale count as a timed event? In a sense, all circulars and sales are timed events. Sometimes Macy’s has 72-hour sales; I wonder how they see those types of events.
I know, right? A weekly ad is also a “timed event” since it only lasts for a week.
@Rachel @ Surviving The Stores,
I told them that too.
@Andrea,
Yes ALL sales are time limited . I think it’s a built in out ,when the deal is really good. My issue with this is that they were refusing to price match ,when I had current advertised policy in hand, and the new one was ‘t on line yet. Bad Public Relations right before Christmas season.
In addition to the fact that the policy IE” denial were totally inconsistent.I wanted two some people were buying as many as 12-14.
Walmart here I come.
My store told me this today and said they just finally got paperwork about the price matching policy. Before they always said they couldn’t do price matching with coupons (I have 2 targets near me so I just always went to the other one.) Now they both do it but when I took something up to CS to do a price match (after I had bought it) they had to do a lot of calling people, etc to get it to price match on the orginal price not the coupon price. I think they are going to have to fix their registers or something.
So bottom line after 45 mintes waiting I got $89 back instead of $32. My deals were something not mentioned. I found a price of $10 for selected Nitendo DS Games at Big Lots (wasn’t sure they would do it since it said selected) and $10/2 target coupons. I ended up paying $30 for 6 games. Now I am sad I didn’t get some more games for my sister and little boy.
How do you do the Walmart price matching–go to customer service first or can the registers do it? You made me think about doing all my Black Friday shopping at Walmart. I just have never done price matching there since Target is so close to my house.
@Andrea, At most Walmart stores, you can price match right there at the register when you show them a competitor’s ad. Walmart really makes price-matching super easy!
I was wondering the same as Andrea.
Rachel, do you think you could write a How-to for getting pricematching at Walmart, especially for the Black Friday sales.
Meijers is going to have a great deal on bikes on Black Friday and I know there will be a all out fight for them, if I could get them pricematched at Walmart, it would be a dream!
@Elli, Sure! I’ll try to get that up within the next week. Thanks for the idea!
Do you know if Target takes for instance a Huggies diaper coupon AND a Target Huggies diaper coupon? I’ve tried twice because it would be 4.00 off and both times they said no. I was really bummed because I diaper a few kids over here!
@marisa, Yes, according to their corporate coupon policy (http://www.target.com/Coupon-Policy-Store-Merchandise-Information/b?ie=UTF8&node=2223357011) they will take both a Target coupon AND a manufacturer’s coupon. I recommend printing out their policy from their website and bringing it with you to show the cashier if you run into problems.
I was able to get 3 of the Leapfrog toys but they sure didn’t like it! I guess I was lucky! Thanks.
I was able to get 3 of the Leapfrog toys for $.49 each, and my cashier didn’t even blink!! I guess I got super lucky!
I had difficulty doing some price matching that also include redeeming coupons at Target a few weeks ago. I had given the cashier my coupons and then was told to go to CS to get the price match difference refunded to me. However, when I went to CS and they scanned my receipt, it only recognized the coupon-discounted price and it actually said that *I* owed *them* money!
In the process the CS clerk that I was working with told me that when Target started the price-matching policy, they said that they would start allowing the cashiers to modify the price at the register (like Wal-Mart cashiers are able to do). She’s as much frustrated by the whole process as we are because they haven’t fixed the registers yet!
It seems to me like they tried to put the cart before the horse by starting a new policy before making sure that all of the kinks were worked out. It’s sad for them because they’ll lose business because of it (as others have commented that they’ll do their price-matching at Wal-Mart instead).